Best Always on Display Apps on Android
1. AOA (Always-on AMOLED)
This is a feature-rich app that comes with plenty of design styles and customization options to choose from. AoA features designs that include stickers, clocks, calendars, weather, notifications, etc. The best part is its granular customization where you can tweak even small settings like brightness, placement, time delay, duration, etc. It also provides multiple ways to trigger the always-on display like raise to wake, double-tap to wake, and more so you don’t have to enable it manually. Anyhow some features like edge lighting are not so customizable or have many designs to choose from. Also, the app only provides a few designs in the free tier. But you can apply premium designs just by choosing to watch an ad. Pros
Many always-on display designs Customization options
Cons
Ads all over the app Many designs are locked under the premium tier
Download AOA
2. Muviz Edge
Edge lighting is the selling point here. But it does a great job of providing many edge lighting themes, customizable settings, when to show settings, animations, timings, placement, etc. Unlike always-on display designs, edge lighting will not be visible all the time on the screen. It will only appear when there is music playing on the device or when a new notification hits the screen. Muviz also supports a few always-on display designs, and all of them feature a media player. Needless to say, it was designed for music lovers. The edge lighting animations are also optimized for the music playing on the device. The only downside is that the edge lighting will not work along with the always-on display provided by the OEM. You need to use the always-on display designs from Muviz Edge only. Pros
Premium edge lighting themesAnimations play in sync with music
Cons
Will not work with OEM’s always-on display screen
Download Muviz Edge
3. NotifyBuddy
This isn’t an always-on display app, but it uses the always-on display technology to bring back the notification LED. NotifyBuddy is a one trick hero. Whenever you receive a new notification, you see a small dot representing the notification LED which is missing on the latest phones. You need to enable this feature on an app-by-app basis and can also set different colors for different apps. It also carries a few additional features like notifying you of missed calls when your phone is on DND, charging indicator, etc. You can customize the size and blink duration of the notification LED. Also, it has burn-in protection that moves the dot a bit every once in a while. You cannot use both the always-on display and notification LED at the same time. Once the app is enabled, your always-on display acts as a notification LED. Pros
Brings back the notification LEDCustomize notifications app wise
Cons
Cannot use always-on display with a notification LED
Download NotifyBuddy
4. AOE (Always on Edge)
AOE is a mix of all three always-on display apps that we covered above. In some cases, AOE offers even more customization options than NotifyBuddy, Muviz, and AoA. While it’s hard to mention all the features, you do get granular control over everything. Like NotifyBuddy, this will not replicate the notification LED but will give you a ticker that displays the latest notifications. It can take quite a while to get a hang of the app as there are way too many things to wrap your hear around. Because of multiple features overlapping one another, your changes may not be applied always or will coincide with other features making it hard to understand. Pros
Provides always-on display & edge lighting designs, and notification options Granular customization
Cons
Can be a bit overwhelming
Download AOE
5. True AMPs
True AMPs provide always-on display animations for charging screen. So these effects won’t appear on the screen all the time. By default, the animation you have selected will only play after you connect the charger briefly before disappearing. You can choose to display animations all the time when the phone is in charge. While designs from other apps are subtle like stickers, images, and small animations, True AMPs designs are a bit overwhelming and cover the entire screen sometimes. The only issue is that sometimes it doesn’t show the charging percent in the animation or updates the charging percent a few minutes late. Pros
Provides coolest charging animations
Cons
Glitches with charging percentIntrusive ads
Download True AMPs
6. Custom AOD
Custom AOD, as the name suggests, allows you to create your own animation designs. You can set any of your images and gifs as the always-on display screen. Also, you can add multiple images to the same design if you prefer so. But the app is super buggy and also doesn’t offer many customization options. But considering you can design your own animations with gifs, you should give it a try. Pros
Ability to create custom always-on display designs with images and gifs
Cons
Buggy app experience
Download Custom AOD
Add Jazz With Always-on Display Apps
Most always-on display apps do not add any additional info to the display. They only bring you time, music control, and notifications which are possible with most Android phones. But if you like to try new clock faces, effects, and animations, then they are definitely worth checking out. My personal favorite is Muviz Edge because all I want is a bit of animation when playing music and the option to get notified visually.
