A touch of the fingerprint sensor will prevent the phone from sleeping in Android P

Every smartphone user out there has faced the annoying issue of having to keep the screen awake during longer reads. You sometimes find yourself doing unnecessary touches or swipes on the screen because a minute had passed and the screen becomes dimmer and will turn off any second now.

Well, the new Android P update will change all that by expanding the functionality of the fingerprint reader. The new version will let you prevent the phone from sleeping by touching the fingerprint scanner.

This will certainly be more useful for phones with a rear-mounted sensor than those which have the sensor under the screen.

LG and Samsung also have their take on the issue - their phones use the front-facing camera to detect your face while reading and prevented the screen from sleeping. While this makes more sense, some users report higher battery usage since the front camera needs to activate every minute or so and it's less power efficient than the fingerprint sensor. Then again, not having to do anything to keep the screen on is still better than touching the fingerprint, so it's nice to have a choice.

Via