Idle Hands

Get the app

Get the app

For Android 11 or newer. Install it, flip four switches, open your game.

Not yet

Google Play

Idle Hands is not in the Play Store yet. The listing is being worked on, and the day it is approved this card turns into the button.

Until then, anything on the Play Store calling itself Idle Hands is not this.

Not yet

Direct download

A release build you can install yourself will be offered here, with its version and a checksum, once there is one worth handing out. The current builds run on the one phone it is being developed on.

After you install

Four switches, then play.

The app has a button for each one, so you never hunt through Settings. Each switch is explained on the privacy page.

  1. Turn on the accessibility service

    Settings, Accessibility, Installed apps, Idle Hands. This is how it sees which app is in front and presses Back. If Android offers to add it to the accessibility shortcut button, say no: that floating button turns the service off with one tap.

  2. Allow usage data access

    So it can tell when an ad has closed and the game is back. Android sends no event for that on its own.

  3. Allow it to display over other apps

    For the small floating status widget and its pause button, so you can take the phone back with one tap.

  4. Allow notifications

    One ongoing notice keeps the service alive while a game has the screen. Samsung freezes anything without it.

Then open your game. When an ad comes up, Idle Hands takes it from there. On Samsung phones, also set Idle Hands to Unrestricted under Battery so the system never puts it to sleep mid-ad.