Echo: Screen-Off Listening

Echo keeps the sound of the video you're watching going with the screen blacked out, for when you want to listen, not watch.

Turn Echo on once. Then, in the app you're already using, tap Echo's small floating button: the screen goes black and ignores touches while the video keeps playing underneath. Triple-tap the black screen to come back. Finished? Drag the floating button onto the X at the bottom of the screen to turn Echo off, from inside any app.

HOW IT WORKS
• Echo paints the display black over the app you're using and keeps the phone awake, so that app simply stays on screen and keeps playing. Nothing is downloaded, copied or re-played.
• Echo follows what your apps publish to the lock screen and gives you play, pause and skip in one ongoing notification, on the lock screen too.
• Sleep: choose when Echo stops, from 15 minutes to 3 hours after blackout starts, a custom time, or never (the default). Echo then pauses the video and gives the screen back.
• A Quick Settings tile turns Echo on or off from the notification shade.

OPTIONAL: SKIP AD BUTTON (USES THE ACCESSIBILITY SERVICE API)
Echo has one optional feature that uses Android's AccessibilityService API. It is off by default. Before you can turn it on, Echo shows what it accesses and why, and asks for your consent; you then switch it on yourself in Android's Accessibility settings.
• What it does: while Echo's black screen is on, it taps the "Skip Ad" button in the app that is playing, when that app shows one. It is the same button you would tap yourself if you could see the screen. It does not block, remove or hide ads; ads without a Skip button play as normal.
• What it reads: only the on-screen buttons and their labels in the one app that is currently playing, and only while the black screen is on. At all other times it receives nothing.
• What it never does: it does not collect, store, log or share anything it reads. It does not read other apps, what you type, or passwords, and it does not change any settings or perform any other action.
• You can turn it off at any time on Echo's home screen or in Android Settings > Accessibility.

HONEST LIMITS
• Blackout keeps the screen on (black), so it uses more battery than locking your phone.
• Echo can't make an app play in the background. If an app pauses itself when you leave it, that's the app's choice, which is why blackout starts from the floating button, without leaving the app.
• Please follow the terms of the services you use.

PERMISSIONS, EXPLAINED
• Notification access: Android's way of letting an app see what is playing. Echo ignores notification content.
• Display over other apps: draws the black screen and the floating button.
• Notifications: show the playback controls.
• Accessibility service (optional): the Skip Ad button feature described above.
Each permission is explained in the app, during setup, before you're asked for it.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
No account. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. Nothing Echo reads leaves your phone.

Echo is an independent app and is not affiliated with any video or music service.