Faster, stealthy way to power off the phone

gvprtskvni

A similar suggestion has already been posted (https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24377-power-button-multi-tap-possible-feature-request), but it didn't gain much traction and I actually thought of the same thing independently, so I thought I'd try my luck.

I think having a faster, less conspicuous way to shut down the phone would be a great boost to security and privacy in cases when someone is demanding you give them your phone.

If I'm being robbed or having my phone confiscated, I think I would struggle to turn off the phone by the usual method of holding down the power button and then pushing the button on the screen before handing it over. At least without making the situation even worse for myself.

But if, instead, there was a way to power it off using only the power button, I could easily do so as I take the phone out of my pocket without raising undue suspicion.

My suggestion would be pressing the power button three times quickly, but I'm sure there are other options.

What do you guys think?

nandohyphen1

gvprtskvni that would be a cool feature. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure it would have to be something Google does to the phone since GrapheneOS is based on the Google Pixel series.

newbie24689

gvprtskvni This app is not exactly what you're looking for, but source code is provided and it should be easily modifiable(?) to shut down the phone instead of simply locking the phone. It's primary purpose is responding to "phone snatching".
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.wesaphzt.privatelock/
(p.s. I really like this app - keeping it active allows me to quickly lock the phone by shaking it, rather than having to press the power button. )
(You could combine this with a short setting on "auto reboot" - e.g. 8 or 12 hours - which means your phone would initially lock, and then power off if not properly unlocked within 8 or 12 hours later)

gvprtskvni

nandohyphen1 I don't know. I would have thought it could be done by the OS but this is way beyond my technical knowledge.

nandohyphen1

gvprtskvni yeah that might be possible. I think it would be a cool feature. Maybe it'll happen in the future sometime? I think a quicker way to power off the phone would be to swipe down to view the notification centre, and there would be a power button right there.

nandohyphen1

Actually, there is kinda a way to do that. Swipe down twice from the top and on the bottom far right is a power button.

gvprtskvni

nandohyphen1 Right, but I'm thinking of a stressful situation where you may not have full presence of mind, and where them seeing you turning off the device and not immediately handing it over could prompt suspicion or violence.

In such a case, being able to turn it off using only the power button as you pull it out would be better and make it look like the device was powered of all along.

schweizer

nandohyphen1 there is kinda a way to do that. Swipe down twice from the top and on the bottom far right is a power button.

That is not enough. You need to tap again. Makes four actions in total. Long press the power button and tap is faster.

Are we sure the desired feature can't be achieved by an app?

nandohyphen1

gvprtskvni that makes sense. I know some phones have like a kill switch that completely disables the battery. I haven't looked into them though. After my first stock android phone, I've been GrapheneOS ever since and I'll continue to stay with GrapheneOS. :) But those phones may be worth looking into if its a feature you want/need. ;)

gvprtskvni

I'm genuinely interested to hear what people think about this and if this could be implemented. I think it would be a substantial security improvement.

Dumdum

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/4416

r134a

schweizer Not sure of any specific app in particular, i assume there are apps perfectly capable of doing this, though i'm almost certain they would need 'device admin' permissions.

rufus

I would prefer a quick panic exit from any profile into "state before first login", if this is possible. In that state your phone is encrypted and you could log-in again much faster then with boot.
And I wouldn't like to give up fast access to camera feature because I'm using this quite often.

Dumdum

rufus "state before first login",

Before First Unlock*

And I wouldn't like to give up fast access to camera feature because I'm using this quite often.

Have you tried the lockscreen camera shortcut? Is it fast enough for you?

rufus

Dumdum Before First Unlock*

..you are right..

Dumdum Have you tried the lockscreen camera shortcut? Is it fast enough for you?

haven't tried yet, cause I didn't know :)
might there be a risk for possible activation "by accident"?
I have to check this out, thanks.

rufus

yes, camera shortcut on lockscreen is fine. long push reduces my doubts.

but with this I have clearly seen that double push on power button is much more intuitiv in a critical situation. so it would be best to use this way of order for the most important function. and this depends on the user and should be choosed by the user.

schweizer

The functionality is already there. Press volume down and power simultaneously for 30 seconds and the phone goes into BFU (it reboots).

30 s is too long in a critical situation. Is there a way to decrease this timer?

I've seen in play store there are dozens of apps for altering power functions. It needs some evaluation.

Silicon8462

it should be possible to do this using KeyMapper.
i have tested it on another device and so far it seems to work, as long as one makes sure the screen is on (a limitation for non-rooted devices)
final result should not take longer than a couple of seconds to initiate the shutdown/reboot

Silicon8462

I tested a few things on my pixel 9a:
It only works when installed in the user proile that is currently set, so you have to set up keymapper each time.

I have set up keymapper to lockdown the current profile on a long press of the volume down button. if i hold it a second time, the device shuts down.

quick little guide to replicate my setup:
(if you haven't given KeyMapper accessibility acess yet, you will be asked at some point to do so, this is required for access to your screen and buttons)

Create new keymap with the + on the bottom right
select a trigger key using record trigger and then pressing a button of your choosing (i chose the volume down key, the power button might not work, it did not for me).
select "Long press" on the bottom (by default this is 500ms, but I will change it a few steps later)
under the "Actions" tab press add action and look for "Show power menu" and select it
click the cogwheel that is next to "Show power menu" and set delay to 100ms (this worked well for me, you might be able to reduce this if you disable animations in accessibility settings)
now add "Tap screen"
the easiest way to get the correct coordinates is to press the power button untill the power menu apears and take a screenshot
tap "select screenshot" and choose the screenshot of the power menu
tap the "Lockdown" button on the screenshot and tap the tick on the bottom (you can also choose one of the other options but note that the positions move if your phone is in lockdown mode, also, in secondary user profiles make sure to select the bottom of the "Lockdown" as there is an extra option that causes the buttons to moves the buttons upwards.)
if you want you can give your coordinates a name, this is not necessary
in the "options" tab, we can lower the long press- delay (i chose 150 ms, just experiment and do what feels right for you)
if you want haptic feedback, select "vibrate again on long press" and reduce the vibration duration to 1ms. this way you will feel that the action has run but it will be only barely audible.
press "done" on the bottom and check wether the shortcut works
if you are in a vicarious situation, click the button until you no longer feel the feedback, as if you are too fast it might not be able to finish both actions

Video of the shortcut in action

r134a

Might be of interest for people wanting to use keymapper which needs accesibilty permissions to be able to function:

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/22550-looking-for-a-audio-recording-app-with-quick-activation/13

Just mentioning this so one could make an informed decission. Using this app to have a faster way to turn the phone off, simultanously will increase attack surface. Either choice is ok though, as long as u are aware of the implications.