Hello everyone, some time ago I broke the screen of my Pixel 5. I brought it to a repair store, which replaced it, but apparently they did a bad job because since then the proximity sensor started to misbehave (it was working even with the broken screen, unfortunately they refuse to acknowledge that and won’t repair it for free, and it costs too much to repair it again).

Well, this sensor is driving me crazy. It works kind of good for calls, but it’s almost impossible to play voice messages: the screen continuously flashes, turns on/off every second because of the sensor, and voice messages constantly stops, restart, switch from speaker to ear speaker… it’s incredibly frustrating. For some reason Telegram and Signal work good, but on whatsapp and other IMs, it’s almost impossible to listen to voice messages without going mad.

I have a Pixel 5 running Andoird 14 (stock, non rooted), and I’m looking for a way to disable the proximity sensor just for one app, or entirely. Searching for a solution on the internet, I’ve found this 2020 reddit thread describing an Android 11 option to disable all sensors entirely, but apparently it got removed because I cannot find it, or the quick setting tile the post is talking about (it would be a perfect solution!)

I’m sure there’s some root/magisk app ops solution that can help, but I would have to root the phone or install a custom firmware, but I’m trying to find a solution that doesn’t require that. Unfortunately I have apps that require perfect device integrity and right now I’m stuck on stock android. Any tip on how to solve this?