Always On is a very useful feature that many Android phones have had for years now. Instead of turning off when the user is done with the phone, the screen stays on and displays the date and other important information. This means that you know if you have any notifications or not with a quick glance, no longer having to pick up the phone and turning on the screen.
This feature has been around for a few years now and both Pixel 3 and Pixel 2 have a similar design called “Ambient Light”. However, the original Pixel and Pixel XL do not have this option. Most probably Google thought that it wasn’t good enough at the time to include it on the first gen Pixel devices despite the fact they had AMOLED displays. Always On works best on AMOLED screens because only the Pixels that are needed to show information turn on, while the other pixels stay off.
Nonetheless, you can now enable Always On if you have one of the two original Pixel devices with Android 9.0 Pie installed thanks to “shagbag913”. This forum member created a magisk module that enables Always On display on the original Pixel and Pixel XL.
How To Enable Always On Display on Google Pixel and Pixel XL
This is a simple magisk module that you can easily install and use on your phone. In order for this module to work, you need to have Magisk Manager installed. If you do not have it, then follow this simple guide to learn how to install Magisk on your phone.
- Always On Display for Pixel | AODEnabler.zip
Download the zip file. If the file is located on your computer, then you need to move it over to your phone’s storage. Then open Magisk Manager and flash the file you just downloaded. Reboot your phone. Always On Display will be enabled by default. If you want to turn it off or on, then head over to Settings > Display Settings and there you will find the option to do so.