If you ’re wanting to go beyond the basic material everyone does with their phone — either by extending its capability or by taking more control over what it already does — we’ve aim just the collection of tool for you . These automators , taskers , and shortcut makers can quickly hack Android or iOS to do your mobile bid .
Tasker
What it is : Tasker ( $ 3,Android ) is perhaps the better know automation app for Google ’s mobile OS . It permit you manipulate alert , apps , notifications , dialog boxful , phone configurations , comment , output , and more to take tutelage of your equipment . All of that complexness think it can be scare off for beginners , but it ’s undoubtedly worth investing some time and cause to learn the ropes .
At its heart , Tasker let you link input ( events , clip , detector ) with outputs ( alerts , app action , scope changes ) . It gives you accurate and automatic restraint over almost every part of your Android telephone . Further adding to its appeal is thestrong drug user communitybehind the app and the large number of plugins and add - ons available for it that you may also use .
What you may do : For the Tasker newcomer , it ’s peradventure easier to get a reach of what the app can do than empathise precisely what it is . For representative , you may launch a particular app at a sealed time , turn off Wi - Fi when the screen dims , put your phone on soundless as soon as you go into a specific area , protect certain apps with a passcode , or alter the twist wallpaper on a timekeeper .
The app can also take photos if a wrong password is entered , change the ringtone loudness based on who ’s send for , autoplay your WhatsApp substance , set up reminders for miss notification , switch the display luminousness over the course of the day andmuch more . It ’s even possible to wrap these Tasker events up as disjoined mobile apps and use them right elbow room .
Workflow
What it is : Install Workflow ( $ 3,iOS ) on your iPhone , and you get accession to a suite of tools for greasing the bike between the apps you expend most often . At one final stage is an action or input , and at the other end is a resulting output , and actions can be combined to produce workflow .
It ’s like a long serial publication of genus Apis ( app Programming Interfaces ) that grant apps to talk to each other in way they otherwise would n’t . ruined workflows can be salve as shortcuts on the habitation screenland , kept privileged apps , or used as portion extensions in iOS , so there ’s a lot of flexibility when it comes to decide how you desire your finished outputs to be applied .
What you could do : Again , examplesare perhaps the best means of understanding what Workflow is all about . The app let you cursorily delete screenshots from the photographic camera coil , start the Spotify track for a particular YouTube video , get an Uber drive to the next location on your calendar , loose links in Chrome and send web pages to a Kindle , to name a few model .
you’re able to see how these workflows take information or a particular comment from one place and pipe it into another — the former app update lets you touch off some work flow from the Notification Center and sync events between multiple equipment . If there ’s any kind of robotic connection between two iOS apps that you need to set up , chances are Workflow has an option that can help .
IFTTT/Do
What it is : IFTTT(If This Then That ) is the most approachable option in this list — if you ’re looking for the most telling results with the least drive then IFTTT is the one you ’re looking for . IFTTT ’s custom - made ‘ recipes ’ combine both a gun trigger and an natural action , and a whole host of apps and services are supported as channels , including a number of key Android and iOS integration .
The main IFTTT app is call IF ( free , Android / iOS ) and acts as a variety of strip - down version of the full web app . Alongside that there are the DO apps : DO Button ( free , Android / iOS ) , DO Note ( free , Android / iOS ) and DO Camera ( free , Android / iOS ) , which are even simpler and let you tie in canonic action on your Mobile River with automatic undertaking on other channels .
What you could do : IFTTT has hooks in many popular apps and servicing — preserve your Instagram favorites to Dropbox , update Facebook via SMS , get atmospheric condition alerts via tweets , and so on . As far as Android and iOS are concerned , supported channel cover SMS , the telephone set app , picture , location , electric battery status , touch and reminders , so you may comprise them in your recipes .
The DO apps basically let you set up shortcuts on mobile : you might create a Button to set your Nest thermostat , or log your location in a Google Drive document , or turn off your Philips Hue light , for instance . The Camera and Note version permit you cursorily send pictures or text to popular apps and inspection and repair ( the likes of Facebook , Evernote , Slack , LinkedIn and many others ) .
Automate
What it is : Automate ( freemium , Android ) gives you the power to automatically spark all variety of case on your earphone , from changing twist preferences to sending out texts or emails . It strike a user - friendly - ish flowchart approach to give you an overview of how your automatise tasks are coming together , although it does take some time to get to grips with the app .
There are hundreds of actions , circumstance , triggers and loops to make use of , covering most of the scope , button , sensors and apps on your phone ( some of these install as extra apps ) . If you ’re just getting started with the app , there are plenty of drug user - submitted tasks useable through theAutomate community of interests website , give you an musical theme of what the app can do .
What you may do : basically , meld all form of input initiation with all kinds of resulting actions : deform off WLAN to save battery after a minute of no connectivity , adjust your phone to vibrate during evening hours , link the media loudness to the ringer volume , or launch Spotify when earpiece are plugged in to name four examples from the Automate exploiter community .
Other tasks we ’ve see done with Automate include automatically rub out temporary squirrel away file at veritable points in the mean solar day , turning up the brightness when a call comes in , reading out text message , putting a dim-witted countdown in a apprisal , turn on Bluetooth when driving , fade out music after a particularise length of time and sharing your location with others .
Launch Center Pro
What it is : Describing itself as “ speed telephone dial for workaday tasks ” , Launch Center Pro ( $ 5,iOS ) enable you to set up shortcuts that can be opened from the dwelling house screen or the Notification Center — not just shortcuts to apps but shortcuts to specific mathematical function within those apps . The likes of Evernote , Dropbox , Google Maps , Instagram , Tweetbotand many moreare supported .
The app also tie in neatly with native iOS feature , including contacts , bookmarks , and search , so it ’s possible to set up all kind of customize link to specific tasks on your headphone . In some ways it ’s a variation on the3D Touchfeature Apple has now acquaint with the late iPhones , only you may specify the cutoff and action yourself and set in motion them with a tap .
What you could do : one C of apps ( including some of Apple ’s own ) support the particular universal resource locator call that Launch Center Pro deal in . The app rent you create shortcuts for phoning specific people , read barcodes , searching Yelp for a sure eccentric of place , translate phrases with a tap , archiving your tweet to a file in Dropbox , running certain interrogation on Wikipedia , and so forth .
Launch Center Pro also supports position triggers ( to automatically bond any of these action to a sure place ) and customise telling ( to connect personalized alerting to them , too ) . you could even code your own action URLs manually , and the app also works well with the aforementioned IFTTT .
Header image : Lenka Horavova / Shutterstock.com
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