Posted in: Android, Mobile software

Enable Smart Stay and Smart Rotate on any Android with the GMD Smart Rotate app

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Samsung put a number of exclusive features on their high-end Android devices, like Smart Stay and Smart Rotate. Now, using the GMD Smart Rotate app you can replicate both of those features on a non-TouchWiz device (or on a lower-end Samsung).

The free version of the app implements Smart Rotate – it uses the front-facing camera instead of the accelerometer to rotate the screen. The advantage is that there are situations where the accelerometer gets it wrong – e.g. when you’re lying on your side or if the phone/tablet is on a flat surface.

For this to work, your device needs a front-facing camera and the camera needs to see your face (i.e. there has to be enough light in the room). The GMD Smart Rotate can also force apps to rotate even if they don’t support it.

If you shell out $2 for the full version, GMD Smart Rotate will do Smart Stay too – this feature keeps the screen on when you are looking at the phone, ignoring the sleep timer. This is great for reading (e.g. a web page or an e-book) as it takes you a while to read the page before touching the screen again and a short screen timeout can be a problem.

The paid app also enables per app rotation preferences.

You can grab the free version from here and the paid app ($2) here.

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