• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

How can I show seconds?

T

Tony Boulet

Lurker
Hi,
I often need to know the exact time, ie hour, minute AND second (for instance for setting my mechanical watch). However, it seems to me that Android does not offer this sophisticated feature, even when going to watch app...
Also, I would like to permanently show hour, minute and second on the screen saver.
Does anybody knows about how to show seconds on a telephone?
Thanks!
 
Hi Tony,

First of all, welcome to the site!

I too have searched for the second information in my phone, which I could not find in the standard clock app. I was about to start downloading a host of other clock apps when I realised that I had a terminal emulator installed and could open this and type "date". Since the phone is a glorified linux box, this command shows me the current date and time (to the second).

Perhaps a little more user friendly would be an app like "GPS test". This allows you to check the signal you are receiving from GPS satellites (and your current GPS status). It also has a sub screen that shows the current GPS time (with to the second accuracy). Given that GPS clocks need to be very accurate, this time would likely be more accurate than the clock on your phone.

Hope this helps...

Regards,
Eric.
 
Thanks both of you! I downloaded the DigiClock widget, and of course it shows me seconds. However, it does not show them on the screen saver...
To go a little bit further, I wonder how to inform Android people of this missing feature, and how to suggest them to fix it? So where could I put my point, to start it? Maybe naive, of course ;)!
 
Hi Tony,

I am not 100% sure, due to my lack of Android internals knowledge, but I think that updating the lock screen frequently (like once a second to show the time to the second) would impact the battery life of the phone somewhat negatively. I remember hearing that disabling all active elements on your lock screen/desktop would help with battery life and so I assume the opposite would apply.

What you could try to look for is a lock screen app that supports this, but I doubt that there would be a lot of interest in such a feature so it could be that there is nothing available. I have been wrong before though ;)

If you really want the feature, you could contact the author of a lock screen app and see if they would develop it for you (which would be a lot quicker than learning to do it yourself). Some app authors are quite friendly and willing to help out, some others can be made so with bribery!

Regards,
Eric.
 
Thank you very much for your answer, Eric. I get your point about impacting battery life... yes, of course. Well, modern cell phones can't do everything, not making coffee nor giving seconds: there is still hope for modernity!
 
One would think that the Samsung Theme Store would have a AOD (Always On Display) that shows seconds. I need this feature too, as we have a stunning grandfather's clock that I like to keep adjusted to the perfect time...
 
Last time I really wanted a display that shows seconds was Christmas 1977. When I was 14.

DSC_5624 (900x600).jpg
 
Last edited:
If you only need seconds to set a clock then a clock app that displays this will do (Timely comes to mind). How many times per day will you check it to the second, after all?

Though my Pixel lets me show seconds on my notification bar if I want to (via system UI tuner).
 
On my S8 Active, I would see the seconds every now and again but I didn't know how to bring it up on the screen.
I finally figured out to touch the screen and the clock would roll to a clock with seconds showing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom