Game Mode - Play Quietly

Game Mode is a game launcher that sets your phone up for each game, then puts it back the way it was when you return.

YOUR GAMES

• All your installed games and apps in one list, games first, with quick search

• Pin favourites to the top; recently played games get their own row

• Phone status at a glance: battery level and temperature, thermal state, free memory, screen refresh rate, and connection time to Google DNS (a quick connection check, not your game's ping)

PER-GAME SETUP

Long-press a game to choose what changes while it runs:

• Do Not Disturb: Off, Alarms only, or Priority only (your Android Priority settings decide who gets through)

• Brightness: a fixed level, with auto-brightness off

• Media volume

• Keep screen on longer: a 30-minute screen timeout

Or switch on "Do Not Disturb while playing" once to use Alarms only for every game.

BEFORE THE GAME OPENS

• Close background apps first (Android 13 and earlier): Game Mode asks Android to close the background processes of your other apps, with a short black-hole animation, then opens the game. It shows how many apps it asked to close and free memory before and after, as Android reports it. Apps you are using, and anything Android keeps running, stay open. Android 14 and later no longer let apps close other apps, so there Game Mode only plays the animation. Switch it off on the home screen.

GAME HUD

• A floating panel over games opened from Game Mode, full or as a compact one-line bar: session time, battery level and temperature, free memory, latency to Google DNS and screen refresh rate. Drag it anywhere; close it any time. It cannot show a game's frame rate (no app can measure another app's) and does not change how the game runs. Needs "Display over other apps", asked for only when you switch the HUD on.

SESSION REPORT

• When you come back from a game: play time, plus battery, temperature, free memory and latency as measured when the game opened and when you returned.

NETWORK CHECK

• Measure: 20 connections to Google public DNS, with average, lowest, highest, jitter and lost samples

• Wi-Fi vs 4G/5G: both measured at the same time, side by side (uses a little mobile data)

• Regions: connection time to 13 Amazon Web Services regions, to pick a server region in a game's own settings

It measures; it cannot change or switch your connection and never reaches a game's server.

TEST KIT

• Touch: fingers tracked, touch events per second and a grid that shows any spot that never registers

• Display: refresh rate now, supported rates, resolution and a dead-pixel colour check

QUICK ACCESS

• Add a game to your home screen: the shortcut opens it through Game Mode with its setup applied (Android 8 and later, on launchers that support shortcuts)

• Quick Settings tile to turn "Do Not Disturb while playing" on or off without opening the app

PLAY TIME

• How long you played today and in the last 7 days, in total and per game

• Counted from launch until you come back to Game Mode, so it is an estimate (at most 4 hours per session)

HOW IT WORKS

1. Allow Do Not Disturb access once (a standard Android setting). Brightness and screen timeout also need "Modify system settings" access, which is asked for only when you use them.

2. Switch on "Do Not Disturb while playing", or long-press a game to set it up.

3. Tap a game to launch it.

Everything Game Mode changed is restored when you return to Game Mode. Until then it stays in place, and you can always change it yourself in Quick Settings. Alarms still ring while Do Not Disturb is on.

WHAT GAME MODE DOES NOT DO

Game Mode does not speed up games, raise frame rates or lower game ping. Closing background apps only asks Android to end idle background processes; it does not make games run faster. It only changes the settings listed above, and only the ones you choose. It does not read your notifications and does not use an Accessibility service. Network check and the HUD's latency reading need a connection; everything else works offline.