"Turn screen off" feature with setDisplayPowerMode() impossible since Android 14 [303565669]

Assigned

Feature Request

Status Update

No update yet.

Description

ro...@gmail.com

created issue #1

Oct 5, 2023 02:19PM

I am the author of an app called scrcpy, which mirrors Android devices on a computer.

A feature allows to mirror a device with the physical screen turned off, basically by calling SurfaceControl.setDisplayPowerMode() on a display retrieved using getPhysicalDisplayIds() and getPhysicalDisplayToken(): code.

Since commit e2f333728788ad88a65208a6119aed90e13e7040 in framework/base, these functions have been moved to DisplayControl in a system server, so we can't call them anymore in Android 14.

It seems this also impacts the similar feature in Android Studio.

Could you provide a way to restore the "turn screen off" feature in Android 14?

In particular, please do not expose an API which requires to be called from an Android app (scrcpy is a Java application run as shell, not an Android app, in particular it does not have access to a real Context).

If I may suggest, a simple command line tool callable from adb shell would be helpful, since many people want this feature even outside scrcpy (without requiring to execute Java code from shell). See for example this discussion.

Refs scrcpy issues #3784 #3927 #4330.

Thank you

Comments

ro...@gmail.com <ro...@gmail.com> #2Oct 5, 2023 08:26PM

Other scrcpy features have been broken by changes in SurfaceControl in Android 14: cropping and locking video orientation may not work anymore because the parameters are now ignored in Android 14 (source):

Because this API is now going through {@link DisplayManager}, orientation and displayRect will automatically be computed based on configuration changes. Because of this, the params orientation and displayRect are ignored

vi...@google.com <vi...@google.com> Oct 6, 2023 01:33AM

Assigned to ch...@google.com.

ch...@google.com <ch...@google.com> Oct 31, 2023 03:02PM

Reassigned to sa...@google.com.

lb...@gmail.com <lb...@gmail.com> #3Oct 31, 2023 03:18PM

Is this available on any version of Android 14 now?
Some new beta?

al...@gmail.com <al...@gmail.com> #4Nov 14, 2023 06:43PM

still nothing and its november? shame.

sh...@gmail.com <sh...@gmail.com> #5Dec 1, 2023 04:08AM

It is affecting our app as well. Our tablet app is not built for portrait mode, and we have more customization based on the device type (tablet/phone) in our app. It is affecting many screens and causing unintended behaviour in our app.

sh...@gmail.com <sh...@gmail.com> #6Dec 1, 2023 04:58AM

Our existing apps are not launching in Portrait mode

fl...@google.com <fl...@google.com> #7Jan 24, 2024 03:00PM

Reassigned to an...@google.com.

We'll look into adding a shell command for this.

lb...@gmail.com <lb...@gmail.com> #8Jan 24, 2024 03:18PM

@7 On Android 14?

sa...@google.com <sa...@google.com> #9Feb 7, 2024 03:06PM

Reassigned to ch...@google.com.

We are currently planning for Android 15+. 14 is too late

sa...@google.com <sa...@google.com> #10Feb 7, 2024 03:07PM

Chavi, do you have any plans or ways to expose this functionality?

lb...@gmail.com <lb...@gmail.com> #11Feb 7, 2024 03:32PM

@9 Please stop removing useful features... This time it was even a feature on Android Studio...

ch...@google.com <ch...@google.com> #12Feb 7, 2024 10:04PM

Reassigned to sa...@google.com.

This would have to be exposed in DisplayManager, not WindowManager. I think this was discussed that there needs to be an explicit API to allow the caller to turn off the display. We removed the functionality to go directly to SurfaceFlinger because we don't want to expose IBinder tokens for the displays in SurfaceFlinger

sa...@google.com <sa...@google.com> Apr 25, 2024 10:42AM

Reassigned to an...@google.com.

lb...@gmail.com <lb...@gmail.com> #13Jun 9, 2024 07:37AM

Comment has been deleted.

Message last modified on Jun 9, 2024 08:55AM

lb...@gmail.com <lb...@gmail.com> #14Jun 9, 2024 08:56AM

Seems it's as such for me for Android 14 : Pixel 6 - doesn't turn off in Android Studio, yet ScrCpy can do it. Honor magic 4 pro - turns off in Android Studio, yet ScrCpy can't turn it off.

sa...@google.com <sa...@google.com> #15Jun 13, 2024 02:51PM

SurfaceControl.setDisplayPowerMode() was/is not a public API that Android supports. Using such methods via reflection comes at the risk of the functionality being suddenly unsupported due to normal code refactors and adjustments.

This is what has happened in this case: it was not safe to expose display binder tokens outside of the framework and we closed that gap.

If I understand correctly, the fundamental desire at the heart of this bug is that you'd like to turn off the physical display while it is being mirrored to a different location, thus preserving battery life. Please correct me if I am wrong.

We will consider this as we plan Android's future releases, but keep in mind that such functionality comes with significant scrutiny due to it's potential privacy and security considerations.

lb...@gmail.com <lb...@gmail.com> #16Jun 13, 2024 03:27PM

@15 Android Studio can do it, so it's the same functionality and concerns.

Also, that's nothing compared to other things that are possible via adb.

sp...@google.com <sp...@google.com> Sep 3, 2024 05:11PM

Reassigned to ol...@google.com.

ol...@google.com <ol...@google.com> #17Sep 11, 2024 11:21AM

Reassigned to ro...@gmail.com.

Would having power-off and power-reset adb commands solve this problem? Will soon be protected with android.permission.MANAGE_DISPLAYS

ol...@google.com <ol...@google.com> #18Sep 11, 2024 11:23AM

(*)power-off is going to be renamed to power-reset.

ol...@google.com <ol...@google.com> #19Sep 11, 2024 11:30AM

Sorry. The "power-on" will be renamed to "power-reset".

Be aware that power display off may be overriden by the system at any time, so the display may suddenly go back ON. Similar behaviour could be noticed in previous versions and can not be changed.

ro...@gmail.com <ro...@gmail.com> #20Oct 29, 2024 12:01AM

Thank you very much for the change! https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base.git/+/fd8b5efc7fcd8cec1ea5dc4ccc6bc87d12db3875%5E!/#F17

I adapted scrcpy to use it: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/pull/5418 (I cannot test though, I currently have no device with Android 15)

ro...@gmail.com <ro...@gmail.com> #21Nov 26, 2024 12:04AM

However, with this new feature, mirroring does not work when the power mode is set to off (the screen stops updating): https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/issues/5530#issuecomment-2499254261

sa...@google.com <sa...@google.com> #22Mar 10, 2025 12:14PM

Reassigned to do...@google.com.

Hi Dom, this is a public domain request.

The request here is to allow a device screen to mirror, but let the device's screen be off.

Is this technically feasible with SurfaceFlinger.