What happens when the shared phone locks or its screen goes off
A session that was working stops the moment the phone is put down. Three separate things happen when a screen goes off, and only one of them is about the screen.
Three events people treat as one
The display turns off. By itself this is the least significant. The capture is of the screen buffer rather than the backlight, so the picture does not depend on whether you can see it.
The device locks. Now the lock screen is what is on the buffer — so the viewer sees a lock screen, which is exactly what should happen. Anything sensitive behind it is protected, and lock screen notifications are as visible in the capture as they are in the room.
The system decides the phone is idle. This is the one that actually kills sessions. With the screen off and the phone stationary, battery management starts restricting background work, and on many manufacturer skins the sharing app is stopped outright within a minute or two.
What you can and cannot do about each
| Event | Session survives? | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| Screen dims | Yes | Nothing |
| Screen turns off briefly | Usually | Nothing |
| Phone locks | Yes, but you see the lock screen | Nothing — this is correct behaviour |
| Phone idle for a minute or more | Often not | Exempt the app from battery optimisation |
| Phone put in a pocket | Often not | Same, plus keep the screen on |
| User swipes the app away | No | Nothing — that is an explicit stop |
Keeping a session alive
- Keep the screen on for the duration. The single most reliable measure, because a screen that is on is the strongest signal the system has that something is in use. Increase the screen timeout before a long session rather than tapping every thirty seconds.
- Exempt the app from battery optimisation. Settings → Apps → the app → Battery → Unrestricted.
- Lock the app in the recents screen on Xiaomi, Oppo and similar. This is a manufacturer feature with no stock equivalent, and on those phones it matters more than the Android setting.
- Plug in. Charging changes the system's calculus about background work, and it removes the thermal throttling that degrades a long session anyway.
- Do not swipe the app out of recents, and remove any "cleaner" app that does it on a schedule.
Should it survive the lock screen at all?
Worth thinking about rather than assuming. A session that keeps running while the phone is locked and in someone's pocket is a session nobody is watching, which is a reasonable thing for your own second device and a poor arrangement on a phone belonging to someone else.
For helping a relative, the healthier shape is the opposite: the session lives while they are looking at it and ends when they put the phone down. That way there is never a live session nobody is aware of — which is also the difference between a support tool and something else entirely. See where help ends and surveillance begins.
More guides
Which Android permission does what when you share your screen
Screen capture, remote control and overlays are three separate permissions with very different power. What each one grants, which prompt you are actually looking at, and which to refuse.
The accessibility permission: the most powerful thing you can grant an app
Why Android has no other way to let an app tap for you, what a service with this permission can read and do, and how to audit which apps on your phone currently hold it.
Why the screens look different on their phone than on yours
Android versions and manufacturer skins move settings, rename them and change the prompts. What actually changed between versions, and how to give directions that work on a phone you cannot see.
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