The power button is not a lock button. It never was.
It is a power control - designed to turn a device on when it is completely off, and to trigger an emergency shutdown. Using it to lock your screen 60 times a day is a habit that made sense in 2009 when smartphones were new and there were no alternatives. Fourteen years later, Android gives you significantly better options and most users have not noticed.
Here is why millions of people have moved on - and why you probably should too.
1. Your Thumb Is Already in the Wrong Place
When you use your phone, your thumb is on the screen. The power button is on the side. Every lock action requires you to interrupt what you are doing, reposition your grip, locate the button, press it, and readjust.
For a task you repeat 60 to 80 times a day, that motion adds up to hours per year spent moving your thumb sideways.
A home screen widget or floating button locks the screen in a single tap from exactly where your thumb already is. No grip adjustment. No searching for the edge of the device.
2. Large Phones Make It Worse Every Year
In 2009, phones were small enough that the power button was reachable without thinking. Today the average Android flagship is 6.5 inches diagonally. The power button on a Galaxy S25 or Pixel 9 Pro requires a deliberate grip shift to reach one-handed.
Phone screens keep getting larger. The power button is not getting more accessible. The gap between "where your thumb is" and "where the button is" grows with every generation.
3. The Power Button Has Better Things to Do
On most modern Android phones, the power button now serves multiple purposes:
- Long press → Google Assistant or Bixby
- Double press → camera shortcut
- Press + Volume Down → screenshot
- Long press + Volume Up → Emergency SOS
The button is increasingly overloaded with functions. Using it for routine screen locking means you are sharing this busy button with your voice assistant, your camera shortcut, and your emergency panic button.
A dedicated software lock removes screen locking from that crowded button and gives it a cleaner home.
4. Software Lock Is Identical in Every Way That Matters
Some people assume software locking is a workaround - a second-best option compared to the "real" power button. This is incorrect.
On Android 9 and above, the system lock API (performGlobalAction(GLOBAL_ACTION_LOCK_SCREEN)) performs the identical operation. The screen locks, the display turns off, and the device requires authentication to unlock. Fingerprint sensors work. Smart Lock works. Face unlock works. Nothing about the security or post-lock behavior is different.
The only thing that changes is the input method: a tap on screen instead of a press on the side.
5. It is Faster in Practice
Not by much, but measurably. A tap on a widget placed at the natural resting position of your thumb is faster than a deliberate press on a hardware button. The widget does not require pressing down with force. It does not require locating a raised nub on the side of the device. It is always in the same spot on screen, every time.
After a week of using a screen widget or floating button, reaching for the power button to lock feels noticeably clunky - the same way tap-to-pay feels clunky to go back from once you are used to it.
6. Every iPhone User Already Does This
Apple added AssistiveTouch to iOS years ago - a floating button that, among other things, locks the screen. A significant portion of iPhone users use it daily, and almost all of them switched for the same reason: convenience.
Android has had equivalent functionality for years through apps like Turn Off Screen. The difference is that on Android, you actively choose to set it up. Once you do, you will not go back.
7. Zero Downsides
There is no cost, no tradeoff, no catch.
Turn Off Screen is free to download. It does not drain battery. It does not slow down the phone. The power button still works exactly as before - you simply stop using it for locking. Nothing is removed; a faster option is added.
The habit of using the power button to lock the screen is one of those small inefficiencies that accumulates silently over years of phone use. Most people never question it because it works and because alternatives require a five-minute setup.
That setup - installing Turn Off Screen and adding a home screen widget - takes less time than reading this article.
No sign-up. Works on Android.