Best Automation App for Android If Routines Are Not Enough

Phone automation is one idea repeated: when this happens, do that. The phone goes silent when you reach the office. Texts are read aloud once the car’s Bluetooth connects. MacroDroid is the app to learn that on, and Tasker gives the most control. Your phone can set up the simple ones with no app at all.

MacroDroid or Tasker

MacroDroid, from ArloSoft, is the easiest start. Its listing explains a macro in three steps: pick a trigger, choose the actions, and add constraints if you want the macro to run only at certain times or places. It counts over 120 triggers, 200 actions and 80 constraints, plus a store of ready-made templates. Triggers include location, battery level, an app opening, a shake of the phone, a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection and an incoming notification. Actions include changing the volume, speaking text aloud, sending a message and dimming the screen.

The free version carries ads and stops at five macros, which is enough to find out whether automation suits you before you pay anything. ArloSoft describes the Pro upgrade as a small one-time payment with no subscription that removes both, and Google Play lists the app’s in-app purchases at $1.49 to $10.00 on the US store. The listing says features that tap through other apps’ screens use Android’s accessibility services, that this is optional, and that MacroDroid collects no data through it.

Tasker, from joaomgcd, is what the others get compared with, and the choice if you already know you want the longest list of actions. Its listing counts more than 130 states and events to react to and more than 350 actions, from sending an SMS to switching dark mode, Do Not Disturb or the Wi-Fi hotspot. You can also design your own on-screen controls, and many other apps publish Tasker plug-ins. MacroDroid and Automate both say they can run those plug-ins too.

It is the only app here you pay for up front: $4.49 on the US store, ₹480 in India, £3.99 in the UK and ₦6,990 in Nigeria, once. There is no free version on the store, but the developer’s site offers a direct download that works for seven days if you would like to see it first.

Root is not needed for most of its functions, and the same goes for automation apps generally. A few actions, such as killing an app, do need it because of Android’s security rules. Tasker also uses an accessibility service for some features and the device administrator permission for its lock action.

Automate, drawn as a flowchart

Automate, from LlamaLab, suits anyone who thinks in diagrams or wants every feature free. Each automation is a flowchart built from more than 410 blocks. You add blocks and connect them, and LlamaLab says beginners can fill each block from preset options while experienced users write expressions and variables. Other users’ finished flows can be downloaded inside the app.

LlamaLab’s documentation says the free edition has a single limit: 30 blocks running at a time, which it works out as 15 two-block flows or one flow of 30. Every feature works without paying. Premium is one in-app purchase tied to your Google account, and Google Play shows it at $4.99 in the US. The listing carries no ads label.

The app uses the device administrator permission to lock the screen and watch for failed unlock attempts, and the accessibility API for anything that works on what is on screen. LlamaLab adds that some features cannot be offered in an app on Google Play because of store policy, so it packages those in a separate add-on downloaded from its own site.

IFTTT, for online services more than the phone

IFTTT connects accounts and gadgets: a smart light, a spreadsheet, a social feed. It links more than 1,000 online services and smart home brands. Its Android device service is small by comparison. On IFTTT’s site it has 14 triggers, all to do with notifications, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, and eight actions, such as setting the ringtone volume, turning Do Not Disturb on or off, changing the wallpaper and starting Google Maps navigation.

The free plan allows two Applets, which is what IFTTT calls an automation. Pro is $2.99 a month, billed as $35.88 a year, for 20 Applets with several actions each. Pro+ is $8.99 a month, billed as $107.88 a year, with no cap. IFTTT’s site also says some triggers are checked every hour on the free plan and every five minutes on the paid ones. It is the only app here sold as a subscription, so choose it for what it links to, and leave phone settings to one of the others.

AutomateIt and Automation

AutomateIt, from SmarterApps Ltd, is free with ads and works in simple pairs: one trigger, one action, with starter rules included. Its listing names triggers such as a battery level, an SMS containing certain text, a Wi-Fi network, a location and an NFC tag. Combining several triggers or actions in one rule is kept for AutomateIt Pro, a separate $3.49 app that also removes the ads. The listing says shutting down, restarting and killing apps need root, and two of its caveats refer to Android versions as old as 4.2 and 2.3. With five macros free in MacroDroid, we would try that first.

Automation, from Jens Schröder, is one developer’s project with no ads and nothing to buy. It triggers on things like time, charging, a Wi-Fi connection, NFC tags, Bluetooth events and notifications. The developer writes that Google’s restrictions have forced more and more features out of the store version, among them the location, speed and noise-level triggers on newer devices, and points anyone who minds to the app’s own website.

The permissions these apps ask for

These apps ask for more than most, and the makers explain why. Pressing buttons in other apps needs the accessibility service, and locking the screen needs the device administrator permission. A few actions still need a rooted phone. Grant them with care. Automate’s listing says the accessibility API is what lets it interact with the screen, intercept key presses and take screenshots, which gives an idea of how much that one permission opens up.

Battery savers are the other thing to know about. LlamaLab’s help pages say that when flows pause as the screen goes off, a power-saving feature or task killer is the likely cause, and the fix is to exempt the app from battery optimisation in Settings.

Galaxy Routines, Pixel Rules and Android Modes

Android has nothing under one name on every phone to match Shortcuts on the iPhone. Samsung’s Modes and Routines is the closest built-in tool, and it may be all a Galaxy owner needs.

Of the built-in tools, it does the most, and it works the way the apps above do. Open Settings, tap Modes and Routines, go to the Routines tab and tap the plus sign. Under If, you pick a trigger. Under Then, you pick an action. Save it, give it a name, and it runs by itself. Samsung’s support page describes a wide variety of triggers, and the Discover icon on the Routines tab offers ready-made routines you can adjust. Modes, on the other tab, are broader presets that can switch on automatically and change things like Do not disturb. Samsung notes that availability varies by device and software version.

Pixel phones have a much smaller tool, which is fine if you only want the phone quiet at work. Go to Settings, System, Rules, then Add rule, and choose a Wi-Fi network or a location. Google’s help page lists four things a rule can do there: turn on Do Not Disturb, or set the phone to silent, vibrate or ring. The phone can also suggest a rule from your habits through a “Settings suggestion” notification.

On any recent Android phone, look under Settings, Modes. Android’s help pages describe a Bedtime mode that follows a schedule or switches on while the phone charges, a Driving mode that switches on while driving, and custom modes with their own time range and notification filters. Google says some of these steps need Android 14 or later, and that settings can vary by phone.

The Google Home app automates the house more than the handset. A routine there starts with a voice command, a set time, a dismissed alarm or a smart device doing something, and can then adjust lights and plugs, play media or read out the weather and your calendar. Google’s help page says routines are only available in some regions and languages. If the home side is what you are after, we cover that in smart home hubs.

All of this changes what the phone does. For how it looks, the page on customisation apps for Android has more.