AwakeTab

Changelog

  1. 1.0 — launch

    AwakeTab 1.0 keeps your screen on from a browser tab, and the status pill only says “Screen awake” when the browser has actually granted the lock. Nothing to install, no account, no cookies. It is free, and there are no ads on the awake screen.

    On the awake screen: press M for Clock, Focus (25/5-minute blocks, with today’s count), Minimal, Night, Message (Pro) or Cook. Cook mode has tap-to-pause and three named kitchen timers. A session can end with a soft chime, an optional notification and a flashing tab title, then offers +15, +30 or +60 minutes. Stats shows today (minutes and sessions), this week, your streak, a 12-week heatmap and a CSV export. The floating window has Stop and +15. With Pro it also shows the clock or your focus block. The pop-up version opens in your language. The installed app works offline and offers updates only when no session is running.

    In your language: the tool is available in eight languages. The ten most-read guides are now also in Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Hindi, marked “native review pending” until a native speaker has checked them. Pages in other languages keep their address when the tool starts.

    Steadier and faster: the page no longer moves when a session starts, and the first screen appears sooner on phones. Keyboard focus is visible everywhere, every journey works with the keyboard alone, and D steps through every theme.

    Beyond the tab: AwakeTab for Chrome keeps the display, or only the computer, awake while the tab is hidden, using Chrome’s own power API. It has a badge, Alt+Shift+A, and, with Pro, schedules and auto-start. Store links appear on the /extension page once the listing is approved. Sites can add a “keep my screen on” widget with one line of code (see /embed). Lobby screens can use kiosk start links (see /kiosk). The open-source lock library behind AwakeTab is ready for npm (see /library).

    Pro and licences: cancelling a yearly plan keeps Pro until the end of the period you paid for. Removing a device on /pro/manage takes effect on that device. Moving your key into the extension uses one activation, not two. Lifetime licences no longer ask for the key again after 90 days.

    Still honest: a web page cannot keep the screen on while its tab is hidden, cannot keep Teams or Slack “Available”, and cannot stop sleep when you close a laptop lid. AwakeTab says so, and it never fakes mouse or keyboard input. The real-device results on How we tested are pending until the manual run is recorded.

  2. Page addresses without redirects

    Every page now opens directly at the address used in links, search results and shared URLs, for example awaketab.com/30m or awaketab.com/for/cooking, with no redirect first. The language homes keep their trailing slash, for example awaketab.com/es/.

  3. A contact address, a fuller privacy policy and a readable changelog

    The About page now lists a contact address, support@awaketab.com, for support, refunds, bug reports and data requests.

    The privacy policy now says what AwakeTab keeps on its servers and for how long. Anonymous usage events are deleted after 90 days. Ratings carry no identity and are kept for up to 2 years. A licence record is kept until the licence expires plus one year. It also explains how to have your licence data deleted, and describes the article ads before they start (none are shown yet).

    This changelog now shows formatting and links properly and lists entries newest first.

  4. Pro cancellations and refunds reach every device

    When you cancel a Pro subscription, turn a cancellation back off, or get a refund through Polar, your Pro devices now pick up the change the next time they check in, the same way on the website and in the extension. A cancelled yearly plan still keeps Pro until the end of the period you paid for. A full refund ends Pro on every device.

    To make this work, the licence record now also keeps Polar’s reference numbers for your purchase (order, subscription and licence key IDs), so a notice from Polar finds the right licence. No name, email or payment detail is stored.

  5. Embed widget, kiosk links, and the wake lock library

    Sites can now add a “keep my screen on” button with one line: <script async src="https://awaketab.com/embed.js" data-mode="cook"></script>. The widget is the real AwakeTab in a small frame — the same honest status in eight languages, Start/Stop, tap the timer to pause while the screen stays on, and up to three kitchen timers in the full-width size. If a site pastes the frame without permission to keep the screen on, the widget says “Ask the site owner” instead of pretending. The new /embed page has a snippet generator and live demos; a free widget carries a small credit link, and the Embed licence removes it and applies your brand colour.

    The new /kiosk page builds start URLs for lobby screens and signage — autostart, message, theme — and, with a Kiosk licence, your own logo and no AwakeTab branding or prompts. Licence links carry the token after #lic=, which is checked on the device and removed from the address bar.

    @awaketab/wake, the open-source lock library behind AwakeTab, is ready for its 1.0 release on npm. /library has a live state-machine demo running the published build, and How we tested now shows the device matrix — its results are pending until the manual run is recorded.

  6. AwakeTab for Chrome — the browser extension

    A web page can only keep the screen awake while its tab is visible. AwakeTab for Chrome asks Chrome itself to keep the display — or just the computer — awake, so it keeps working when the tab is hidden or the window is minimised, for as long as Chrome is running. It still can’t stop sleep when you close a laptop lid, and it never fakes keyboard or mouse input.

    Pick Screen or System, then a preset from 15 minutes to 4 hours, a time, or until you stop. The popup shows the same ring and status as the web app and only says “Screen awake” once Chrome has accepted the request. The toolbar badge shows ON, SYS or the minutes left, and Alt+Shift+A toggles it from any tab. When a timer ends you can get a notification with +30 min and Stop buttons.

    With Pro, the extension adds weekly schedules and auto-start when Chrome opens or when you visit a site you choose; your Pro key activates it as one of your five devices. It needs only the power, storage and alarms permissions; notifications and site access are optional and asked for one at a time. Anonymous usage statistics are off by default. There’s a new page at /extension, and the privacy policy has an extension section.

  7. Sessions per day, focus blocks and a floating timer in your language

    Stats now counts sessions per day. “Today” reads, for example, “42 min · 2 sessions”, and the CSV export fills its sessions column. Days recorded before this update show no count rather than a guess. Focus mode now shows how many focus blocks you have finished today. A block only counts when it runs to the end.

    The pop-up floating timer, used in browsers without Document Picture-in-Picture, now opens in the same language as the page you opened it from.

    With Pro, the floating window shows your ambient mode: the clock in Clock and Night, or the current focus interval and phase in Focus. The “Screen awake” status is always there.

  8. Ambient modes, stats and an offline app

    Press M to switch the awake screen into Clock, Focus, Minimal, Night, Message or Cook. Focus runs 25/5-minute Pomodoro cycles. Night shows red digits on true black. Cook keeps the screen on while you pause its timer and adds up to three named kitchen timers that survive a reload. Message shows one line of your own text (Pro).

    Sessions can now end with a soft chime, a notification (if you turn notifications on) and a flashing tab title, then offer to extend. A new Stats panel shows today, this week, your streak and a 12-week heatmap. Settings adds Indigo, Teal and Rose accents (Teal and Rose come with Pro). After a few sessions, AwakeTab asks once how it’s doing.

    The floating window gains Stop and +15 buttons, and P closes it again. In browsers without Document Picture-in-Picture, the pop-up now mirrors the live timer and its Stop button works. The installed app now works offline, says when you’re offline, and offers updates only when no session is running.

  9. Pro licence fixes

    If you cancel a yearly Pro subscription, Pro keeps working until the end of the period you paid for. Before this fix it stopped as soon as you cancelled. A device you remove on /pro/manage now actually loses Pro, and devices you use regularly are no longer removed as “unused for 90 days” when you add a new one. Lifetime licences no longer need their key entered again after 90 days.

    When you hit the rate limit, the API response now says how many seconds to wait before retrying.

  10. Steadier layout, clearer focus and pages that stay in your language

    The tool no longer shifts when a session starts. The status pill, the timer caption and the Stop button keep their places, so the page does not move under your finger. The “Read this in…” language suggestion now appears at the bottom of the screen instead of pushing the tool down.

    Pages in other languages keep their address when the tool starts. Reloading /es/ or a translated guide now keeps you on that page; before, it could switch you to English or to a page that does not exist.

    Keyboard focus is now visible everywhere. That includes each part of the “Until…” time field and the drop-down menus in Settings in Safari. Pressing D several times in a row now steps through every theme; quick presses used to skip ahead by only one.

    When the wake lock is blocked, the help link now says “Why this happens and how to fix it” instead of “Learn more”.

  11. Encrypted weekly backups of licence records

    Licence records are now backed up every week. Each backup is encrypted before it is stored and kept for twelve weeks, and restoring one follows a tested procedure. The key that protects stored licence keys can now be rotated safely. What AwakeTab stores has not changed: licence keys are still kept only in encrypted form.

  12. Top guides in seven more languages

    The ten most-read guides are now available in Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Hindi: cooking, downloads, presentations, iPhone Safari, Android Chrome, Windows 11, macOS, the greyed-out iPhone Auto-Lock fix, AwakeTab vs Caffeine and the browser support matrix. Each one is written for how people search in that language, embeds the tool with the same preset, and keeps every honest limit. They’re marked “native review pending” and stay out of search results until a native speaker has checked them.

    The language menu at the bottom of a guide now opens the same guide in the other language when there is one. Link previews for these pages show their title in the page’s own script, including Japanese, Chinese and Hindi.

    Long translated link labels and code snippets no longer run off the screen on narrow phones.

  13. The extension says "System awake" at System level

    At System level, AwakeTab for Chrome keeps your computer awake, but your screen can still dim, turn off or lock. The popup used to say “Screen awake” there as well. It now says “System awake”, with “Screen may dim or lock” underneath, in all eight languages. The toolbar badge still shows SYS. At Screen level nothing changes.

  14. Extension key hand-off uses one activation; faster embed widget loads

    Opening “Find your key on awaketab.com” from AwakeTab for Chrome no longer activates Pro in that browser as well. The page checks the key and shows it to copy, and only the extension activates it. Moving your key into the extension now uses one of your five activations instead of two. If you arrive there straight from checkout, the page fills in your key without activating anything.

    The embed widget’s script now has a new file name for every release, so browsers can cache it for good. Pages that embed the widget no longer re-check that script on every load. The one-line https://awaketab.com/embed.js snippet is unchanged.

  15. Japanese, Chinese and Hindi pages use English addresses

    The Japanese, Chinese and Hindi versions of our guides now use the same address as the English page with the language in front, for example awaketab.com/ja/for/cooking rather than a romanised spelling. These links are easier to read and share. Spanish, Portuguese, German and French pages keep their translated addresses.

  16. Pro activates by itself right after checkout

    After you buy Pro, the page Polar sends you back to now finds your licence key and activates this browser on its own, and the hand-off from AwakeTab for Chrome shows the key ready to copy. Before, it could not find the key and asked you to paste it from the receipt email.

    Polar needs a few seconds to create the key after a payment, so the page may say “Your purchase is still syncing” briefly and then try again by itself. It only ever shows the key of the purchase you just made. Pasting the key from the email still works as before.

  17. Site analytics and Pro plumbing

    First-party /api/e beacon (opt-in telemetry), donation link in the footer, Pro pricing and activation pages, and licence endpoints. Ads remain disabled (PUBLIC_ADS_ENABLED=0). /pro/activate lists activation errors and supports ?ext=1 copy-paste for the extension. /pro/manage can remove a device.

  18. Consistent component styling

    Buttons, badges, cards, tables, alerts, breadcrumbs and form fields now share one component library (shadcn/ui) across the tool, content and Pro pages, so the same control looks the same everywhere and in every theme. Everything is rendered at build time: no new JavaScript, no change to what the tool does, to the performance budgets, or to third-party requests (still none on tool pages).

  19. Site, SEO and eight locales

    The home page now carries the full tool, a support matrix, honest limits and eight FAQs. Hub and trust pages are live. UI strings exist in eight languages; unreviewed locale homes stay out of the sitemap until a native speaker signs them off.

  20. Foundation

    Published the initial AwakeTab holding page and repository foundation.

  21. Fifty-one English scenario pages

    Fifty-one English articles across /for, /on, /vs, /guides and /learn. Each page embeds the tool with autostart off, states an honest limit, and links related routes. Ads remain off.