It watches for signs that you've fallen asleep while watching videos or listening to audio. When that happens, it shows a 30-second countdown banner, gently fades the volume during that window, then pauses playback and lets your screen turn off.
Set your idle time with the dial (how long before it triggers), then tap the play button. That's it. The detection runs in the background while your screen is on.
Yes — drag the dial on the main screen to any value from 2 minutes upward, or use the Handheld / Hands-free presets (see the next question). Past 60, the dial wraps for longer durations.
It depends on how you watch:
If none match, drag the dial to any value from 2 minutes upward.
Yes — free, with no ads, no subscription, and no account. The free version is fully automatic: sleep detection, auto screen-off, every mode, plus a passive sleep tracker showing your recent nights. The optional one-time Pro upgrade (in the menu) does two things: it keeps the automatic modes always-on (so you never tap Start), and it unlocks your full sleep history beyond the recent days the free version shows. On the free version, after a generous monthly allowance of automatic sessions, you simply tap Start once before each use; detection and screen-off still run automatically. No subscription, ever.
Yes — automatically, with nothing to wear or charge. Because StillAsleep knows when you fell asleep (it turned your screen off) and when you woke (you unlocked), it builds a night-by-night sleep timeline from those screen on/off times. Open the app and swipe over to the sleep record to see how you've been sleeping; the nights StillAsleep switched your screen off for you are marked. It's all derived on your device from screen activity — no microphone, no motion logging, nothing uploaded. The free version shows your most recent nights; Pro shows your full history.
So StillAsleep can show the countdown banner on top of whatever you're watching. Without this permission the banner can't appear, and you wouldn't get the chance to extend the timer when you're still awake. (On Pixel and some other phones this permission is called "Display over other apps".)
These brands aggressively freeze background apps, so StillAsleep needs three things switched on. The app's home screen shows two banners to guide you: tap the first banner and it opens StillAsleep's app-info page, where you turn on items 1 and 2 below. The second banner sent you to this page for item 3 — autostart — whose exact location differs by brand (some put it on the app-info page, some deeper in Settings, Xiaomi in its Security app). Find your brand below.
Where to enable autostart (item 3). These are system settings — in your phone's Settings app (the gear icon); on Xiaomi it's the separate Security app (its own app icon, not a menu inside Settings) — not a setting inside StillAsleep. Where a step says "app info", that means Settings → Apps → StillAsleep:
If the countdown never fires after you leave the phone alone for a while, it's almost always because background activity / autostart is blocked.
Tap the first banner to turn on Appear on top (called "Display over other apps" on Pixel and stock Android) — that's the only required setting. A second banner offers a one-tap "don't optimize battery" prompt; allowing it makes the auto-screen-off more reliable on some phones, but it's optional.
Tap the banner, or shake your phone. Either resets the idle timer immediately.
No. On a typical day with 5 hours of unlocked screen time, StillAsleep uses well under 0.2% of your battery.
No — sleep detection itself works fully offline. Network is used only for Google Play billing (if you buy Pro) and for anonymous usage statistics — never your sleep data. No account, no sign-up, no ads.
Any app that plays media — YouTube, Netflix, TikTok, Instagram, Spotify, Apple Music, podcast apps, local video players, and so on. Pausing uses the standard system media key, which virtually all media apps support.
In Handheld and Hands-free, no — once you've locked the phone yourself, there's nothing left to do. In Fixed Countdown, yes — the timer keeps counting and pauses your media at the scheduled time, even with the screen off.