How to re-awaken the screen when it blanks/shuts during a call?

[sdh73]

My screen blanks/sleeps/shuts off after about a minute during a call.
How do I re-awaken the screen if, for example, I want to "press 7 to delete this message"?
Tapping the screen doesn't work, unsurprisingly, because the screen is slept.
Tapping the volume rocker does not work.
Tapping the power button ends the call because I have the phone configured that way, because I found was unable to end calls, because I couldn't tap the Big Red Hangup Button on the screen, because the screen sleeps.

I don't remember having this problem before KitKat ruined my phone.

Does anyone else struggle with this? Or has solved it?

The people at Google in charge of KitKat deserve to lose their jobs.

 

[teddyearp]

This must only happen if you're using the speakerphone. When I have had this problem, I will hold the phone to my ear for a moment, then pull it away. The screen should wake back up then I would think. I am also surprised that tapping the screen won't do it either.

good luck

 

[sdh73]

I think you're right about speaker vs non-speaker.

I just did a test. The first message in my vmail is over a minute long.

If I play let that message play through w/ the phone in speakerphone mode and w/o touching the phone, the screen blanks before the end of the message, and then Im entirely unable to re-activate the screen.
If I play that message in non-speakerphone mode with the phone to my ear, the screen blanks, but then un-blanks when I pull the phone away from my ear.

I'd bet money the phone is using the camera as a proximity sensor to determine whether the phone is next to a person's head vs away from head and expecting screen input.
And I'd further bet money that that sensing function is disabled in speakerphone mode since, presumably, the phone is never held to an ear.
And I speculate that they intended the power button to be the method to re-awake the screen, in speakerphone mode, but they forgot about the use case when the power button is configured to end call.

I don't remember having this problem pre-KitKat, but it doesn't seem like something that would change with an OS version. But it still sucks.

Thanks for clueing me into the speakerphone-specificity of the problem!

 

[teddyearp]

In all honesty, I believe our phones, perhaps all touchscreen phones, have a separate proximity sensor built in. I know all of mine do.

Just curious, have you tried the put to ear and take away with the speakerphone on? I ask because I use the speakerphone and I _think_ I have used that trick to re awaken the screen too.

 

[sdh73]

In all honesty, I believe our phones, perhaps all touchscreen phones, have a separate proximity sensor built in. I know all of mine do.

Interesting.

Yep, tried that. Didn't work. Also tried waving my hand in front of the phone, swiping the screen madly and yelling into the mic. The phone does not response. I suspect the phone is designed to recognize the power button as the only screen-waken input, once the screen self-dims in speakerphone mode. It seems reasonable to me; the volume buttons could be pressed anytime, and the phone could handed around during a speakerphone call, so you wouldn't want those actions wakening the screen. The power button is a sensible input to waken the screen.

I think they just overlooked the use case of when the power button is configured to end the call.

Silly me, wanting a physical button to do something like end a call.

 

[Thom]

What your user manual says is

"During a call: Your touchscreen goes dark to avoid accidental touches. To wake it up, move it away from your face or press the Power key."

All Motorola phones I have owned have a proximity sensor on the front near the top. It almost looks like a false indentation under the glass. I can not find it documented in the user manual for your phone.

The behavior is different if you are using the speaker phone.

For your original desire to be able to end the call with a button ... if the screen was off I have always tapped the power button to turn the screen on and then tap the onscreen icon to terminate the call.

... Thom

 

[sdh73]

What your user manual says is

"During a call: Your touchscreen goes dark to avoid accidental touches. To wake it up, move it away from your face or press the Power key."

All Motorola phones I have owned have a proximity sensor on the front near the top. It almost looks like a false indentation under the glass. I can not find it documented in the user manual for your phone.

The behavior is different if you are using the speaker phone.

For your original desire to be able to end the call with a button ... if the screen was off I have always tapped the power button to turn the screen on and then tap the onscreen icon to terminate the call.

... Thom

Proximity sensor is reliable for non-speakerphone use because it's reasonable to assume that the phone will be in proximity to the user's head/ear/face. The same assumption cannot be made for speakerphone use, so yeah, the behavior would have to be different.

I configure my phone to terminate calls via the physical power button because I want a button that never vanishes, that I can locate by touch and when I press it I know the call is terminated, and that I'm not leaving someone a stupid 5-minute long voicemail of background noise.

I get touchscreens. I get that smartphones couldn't do too many "smart" things without touchscreens. But certain functions need physical buttons that never vanish. The volume control is an example. For me, "end this phone call this instant" is another. There have been occurrences (I don't remember exactly what led to it) where the screen went to some non-dialpad mode, mid call, where the Big Red Hang Up button was absent and I had to fish though stuff to get back to it. Meanwhile, my voicemail recipient got an extra 30 seconds of me babbling "how the F do end the F'ing call..."

The point of configuring the physical power button to end the call is so that I don't have to rely on the touchscreen's "button".

It's great that Motorola thought to provide the option. But they forgot to test it in combination with the screen auto-shutoff and re-waken behavior.

Shame shame

It's fine; this is not the biggest annoyance since my phone contracted KitKat.

 

[teddyearp]

Silly me, wanting a physical button to do something like end a call.

Well since none of mine and others suggestions worked, then change this one and you should have a more harmonious outcome.

good luck