Inspired by Motorola’s excellent Active Display functionality on the Moto X, Peek Notifications in Paranoid Android provide users with a glimpse at outstanding alerts on their lock screen even when their smartphone is locked. All you have to do is lift your phone, and you can see whether you have missed calls, text messages, emails, and other important notifications waiting for you without actually having to wake up your device.

Until now, Peek has been available only with the Paranoid Android custom ROM — but you can now get it as an unofficial standalone app compatible with almost all devices running Android 4.4 KitKat.

The Peek Notifications app was created by Android developer Zhe Lu. It’s not an official port, then, but it does use the original source code that’s found inside the Paranoid Android ROM — so it works in exactly the same way.

What’s great about Peek is that all you need to do to use it is pick up your phone. It uses your handset’s gyroscope and proximity sensor to detect movement, then lights up when it is needed. The rest of the time, your display remains off to conserve battery life.

Peek is super simple to set up; all you need to do is install the APK and grant it some permissions. When it works, it’s terrific — but it’s still a little temperamental being an early build. Even if you have a device running KitKat, you may run into some problems initially.

For instance, I installed the APK on a Galaxy S5 and an HTC One M8 — both of which are running Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Peek works most of the time (but not all of the time) on the Galaxy S5, but not at all on the M8. It seems users are having most success on the Nexus 5, which is the handset Zhe used to test the app.

Peek isn’t available from Google Play, so follow the source link below to obtain the APK. And be sure to let us know how it works for you in the comments section below.

• SourceGitHub
• ViaAndroid Community