The constantly turning on capacitive buttons...

[nathan118]

The capacitive button lights....turn on...all the time. Every time I touch the screen, they flash on....then after half a second, back off. I touch the screen again, they flash at me. I was ready to move on from on screen buttons on my nexus 5...but the lights are so annoying. And even if you turn them off by going to power saver (which you shouldn't have to), then they don't vibrate! And there's nothing printed on the phone at all...so you're just pressing a blank corner of the phone.

Even if they do give the option to turn the lights off in the future, there won't be anything labeling the button to press. Ugh.

 

[twoeleven99]

I guess you have to pick your poison. You don't want the lights on but at the same time you don't want to touch a blank corner of the bottom of the phone

 

[nathan118]

I guess you have to pick your poison. You don't want the lights on but at the same time you don't want to touch a blank corner of the bottom of the phone

They could have printed something on the phone...but for the sake of making the phone prettier and more iphone like, they didn't. Not to mention the power save mode throttles cpu too...so that's hardly a long term solution. Not keeping a $700 phone in hopes that they'll add an option to turn the lights off.

 

[mupet0000]

That sounds really annoying. I have a galaxy s4 on stock touchwiz lollipop and the capacitive button lights don't turn on unless they are pressed. It's always been like that on the s4 and it's the same on my tab 10.1. The only time I've seen the lights turn on whenever I touch the screen is on some aosp roms. Maybe this is a bug on the s6.

 

[tcristy]

I can turn the key lights off on my AT&T S6. Settings, Display, Touch key light duration, always off.

 

[paddylaz]

yeah only the ATT s6's have the setting for turning off the lights.

Every other version has had the setting removed. And now the bloody lights turn on anytime you interact with the phone...even if you're not touching the buttons!

 

[nathan118]

But none of the versions have any label printed there right?so even if they add the option to turn off the lights, you won't even have labels to pish will you?

 

[twoeleven99]

But you know where the buttons are and what they do why do you need them to be labeled?

 

[nathan118]

But you know where the buttons are and what they do why do you need them to be labeled?

OCD mainly. I shouldn't have to push a general area of the phone and have it do something. Heck, half the promo shots of the phone make it look like there is a light printing of the buttons, but in reality it's blank.

 

[rinxas]

If the ATT version has the option to disable or set a timer, it's definitely software bound. Probably will be added to future updates, hoping so.

 

[wund3rground]

I'm sure it could be tweaked with software. Hell, they wouldn't really bother me that much if they just faded in and out.

 

[sander761]

adb fix for capacitive buttons

I'm sure it could be tweaked with software. Hell, they wouldn't really bother me that much if they just faded in and out.

Hi, using my Note 3 and adb I figured out the fix for this. On the Note 3 these settings were under Settings/Display/Touch Key Light. Assuming you have ADB installed and the phone put into developer mode (root is not required, this is 'standard' stuff) + usb debugging to on, take the following steps (tested on an S6 Edge):

* on the PC running adb, connect it to the device and use the command 'adb usb'. Perform the requested action to allow the PC access to the S6 (Edge)
* next, use the following commands to change the light-out period:
"adb shell settings put system button_key_light 0" -> always disable the capacitive button lights
"adb shell settings put system button_key_light -1" -> always enable the capacitive button lights
"adb shell settings put system button_key_light 1500" -> always disable the capacitive button lights after 1.5 seconds
"adb shell settings put system button_key_light 6000" -> always disable the capacitive button lights after 6.0 seconds
"adb shell settings get system button_key_light" -> get the current setting (standard: 1500, ie. 1.5 seconds)

Good luck,

Sander761 (I posted this same instruction on Tweakers.net in Dutch btw)

 

[wund3rground]

Interesting, thank you.

 

[mupet0000]

So it's either disable the capacitive backlights or enable them? I'm not sure about the S5, but I know the S3 and S4 will only turn on the backlights for the buttons if you actually press them, and they will stay off when you are touching the screen. It's much better that way.

 

[sander761]

So it's either disable the capacitive backlights or enable them? I'm not sure about the S5, but I know the S3 and S4 will only turn on the backlights for the buttons if you actually press them, and they will stay off when you are touching the screen. It's much better that way.

I get the exact same behaviour on my S6 as I get on my Note 3: if I touch them they will light up, if I touch the screen they will stay off. So I don't think that has changed.

 

[wund3rground]

I can assure you that at least on a T-Mobile GS6 when you touch the screen the capacitive buttons light up.

 

[Calnyx]

I can assure you that at least on a T-Mobile GS6 when you touch the screen the capacitive buttons light up.

Confirming as true.

Hi, using my Note 3 and adb I figured out the fix for this. On the Note 3 these settings were under Settings/Display/Touch Key Light. Assuming you have ADB installed and the phone put into developer mode (root is not required, this is 'standard' stuff) + usb debugging to on, take the following steps (tested on an S6 Edge):

* on the PC running adb, connect it to the device and use the command 'adb usb'. Perform the requested action to allow the PC access to the S6 (Edge)
* next, use the following commands to change the light-out period:
"adb shell settings put system button_key_light 0" -> always disable the capacitive button lights
"adb shell settings put system button_key_light -1" -> always enable the capacitive button lights
"adb shell settings put system button_key_light 1500" -> always disable the capacitive button lights after 1.5 seconds
"adb shell settings put system button_key_light 6000" -> always disable the capacitive button lights after 6.0 seconds
"adb shell settings get system button_key_light" -> get the current setting (standard: 1500, ie. 1.5 seconds)

Good luck,

Sander761 (I posted this same instruction on Tweakers.net in Dutch btw)

Thanks for the fix, disabled them. Sad there isn't a way to have them only go on when you press them.

 

[twoeleven99]

I'm sure it can be customized to only light up if pressed on a custom rom. If there are enough requests maybe a dev making roms for us can implement it

 

[mupet0000]

I get the exact same behaviour on my S6 as I get on my Note 3: if I touch them they will light up, if I touch the screen they will stay off. So I don't think that has changed.

This is the behaviour we all want I think. Which variant do you have?

 

[sander761]

This is the behaviour we all want I think. Which variant do you have?

I have the European variant S6 Edge SM-925F, build LRX22G.G925FXXU1AOCV. But just to confirm: my behaviour is that *once the display is on*, using the touchscreen (except cap. button area) does not light the buttons. When unlocking the device, the buttons always light up briefly (unless you turned them off, of course). If that is the wanted behaviour, I guess this is the build you want