How To: Keep Your Samsung Galaxy S3's Screen Awake Whenever You Want (Or Just for Certain Apps)

When we're dead tired but need to stay awake, we humans can do many things to make the drowsiness go away, from taking a cold shower to downing energy drinks or coffee to acupressure.

Unfortunately, our Android devices don't have as many options for staying awake, or the luxury of doing so. I can go a few days without sleep and still survive, but my Samsung Galaxy S3 will go into a temporary coma if it were to stay on for more than 6 hours straight.

Still, there are a few times when you want your GS3 to stay on without falling asleep on you, like when you're reading a very long article, using your phone as a remote for DirecTV, or if you're like me, trying to record a video tutorial.

With that in mind, XDA Forums member, abudgx and his team created Stay Alive (name possibly inspired by the classic Bee Gees song Stayin' Alive), which provides GS3 and Android users the ability to keep their display on for as long as they want.

After installing the free (and ad-free) app from Google Play, you can begin altering the settings to make sure you're keeping your battery life in mind.

Using Stay Alive on Your Samsung Galaxy S3

Stay Alive doesn't just force your screen to stay awake for an unlimited amount of time. You can also pause, disable, or turn on Stay Alive directly from the Notification tray, as well as get instant access to the app's menu to tweak the more in-depth settings.

Now, by selecting the app from the Notification tray, you will be brought into its main menu. Here you will have access to all the functions and features.

The two most useful features that I found were selecting specific applications that will "Stay Alive" and the Auto Pause feature.

Selecting specific apps, like the DirectTV Remote or a Screen Recorder app, will automatically keep the screen on when these apps are open. So, instead of me having to keep the screen on for all apps, I can only use it when I actually need it. This saves battery life and time.

Also, Auto Pause makes sure that Stay Alive shuts off whenever my battery reaches my designated point (10, 20, 50 percent).

Overall, Stay Alive is a pretty simple app with a very simple goal—keep the screen on until you want it off—and it does a very good job at it. Like I said before, it's free with zero ads, but I suggest donating if you really like it, that way it's sure to stay up to date and without issues.

Would you use this application or do you think battery life would still be an issue? Let us know in the comments section below.