Possibly related: I've noticed that when I'm in humid weather and I stick my phone into a damp pocket, it basically monkey-tests until I pull it back out again. Flashlight might be on, string of gibberish might be queued up on a text message, etc.
I'm normally really good about locking the screen when I'm done, but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly.
> but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly
Maybe I'm not crazy. Twice in the past couple weeks, my phone has seemingly unlocked itself in my pocket and I suspected it was to do with moisture/sweat, but dismissed it as unlikely.
In the first instance, it emergency dialed. I had just hung up the phone and put it away, so I thought I hadn't secured it.
In the second instance, I hadn't touched my phone in several minutes when suddenly my podcadt was overlaid with a demo video from an executive at my company which had opened in Teams. I closed out of that and discovered an unsent text to my wife filled with gibberish and a dozen image attachments.
I have a swipe and fingerprint enabled. My best guess is the mosture is registering my leg through the pocket and swiping it unlocked in an infinite monkeys scenario. I switched to password only for my walks now and haven't had an issue since.
Sometimes brushing against the fingerprint sensor (with the proper finger) is enough to unlock the phone. It might happen when you put your phone back in your pocket, then it's pure chaos
Wow this has happened to me more in the past few months than in the previous decade of iPhone ownership.
I received a call with my Mom, my emergency contact, because somehow my phone had pinged her or dialed her as an emergency.
Other times I pull out my phone and also see that it was doing something. Earlier today I was using google maps in a new city, I put my phone back in my pocket and when I pulled it out a few minutes later I was on an "add a new place to the map" or "mark a new place" flow.
After an accidental emergency call, discovered the cause of this was the "tap to turn on screen" feature -- and my leg was tapping it through my pocket. (On my phone, there was no way to remove the emergency call button on the lock screen.)
Thank you! That explains the strange wakeups I get on the phone when I put it my pocket. Every time I think I am crazy “I remember turning the screen off” but then I get it out later and it is on and has the camera app active.
I remember having an issue with a Nexus that I had a while back. I had a hard time getting the screen to turn on and stay on. Turns out, I had misapplied the screen protector and the proximity sensor was thinking that it was in a situation which it shouldn't turn on.
While it was my own doing, I can see many people having that problem to the point where Android turned off the functionality. Multiple support calls, requests to return "defective" phones, etc.
But yeah, I currently have the same issue. If my current Pixel 3a is in my slightly damp pocket, it will have tried to "monkey touching" as the post above called it.
Samsung devices appear to use the camera and/or the proximity sensor to display a "Your phone appears to be in a dark place, slide to unlock".
Unfortunately it seems easy to unlock that as well.
The biggest problems I have with this are related to the "raise to wake" and "tap to wake" features that seem to be enabled by default on all the phones I've tried including iOS devices. I think on Pixel it was called "pick up to check phone" or something else like that. Turning these off drastically reduces the number of times the phone turns on in my pocket because the power button becomes the only way to activate the screen.
On Samsung phones you additionally have to turn off a setting under Always-On display so that widgets are turned off and/or cannot receive touches, such as the music app etc.
This was my frustration with the Pixel 4 as well. So many random things done on my phone, including Amazon 1 Click purchases or random emails about to be sent, etc. All because the stupid thing somehow decides that the screen should be enabled in my pocket. However, if I'm making a call with the phone up to my ear and move it to look at it..."no screen for you!"
Don't believe it's only a phone thing. My Lenovo Thinkpad touchpad goes crazy as soon as my fingers are humid, be it from hand washing or sweating (hello, summertime). For some reason it will jump wildly around and also keep a mousedown event like forever then nothing will help: wiping it dry or crazy tapping or anything. Reboot it and it will work again - until the next wet touch.
I've had the exact same experience with my last two touchpads - including the reboot requirement to fix. Even disabling and reenabling the touchpad after cleaning it doesn't always solve the issue.
I think this is a touchscreen thing. If I take my phone in the shower and put it in a place where water splashes on it during the shower, it does all sorts of random stuff. Have to remember to set it to locked or else I might text someone or delete an email.
I have an insane story where walking in my wet swim trunks opened Instagram and sent a weird selfie from my gallery to multiple people via DM. Rather awkward.
If the screen is facing your leg you can get the capacitive touch to trigger. I learned this while snowboarding so I would have my screen facing outward, of course that puts it at higher risk of smashing though.
I'm normally really good about locking the screen when I'm done, but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly.