this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2024
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Asklemmy

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Any suggestions for paid one time purchase apps on the Google play store?

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[โ€“] MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub 53 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Tasker. Basically an interface for writing scripts for your phone. Even if you don't have a use case in the beginning you'll start finding things to do with it.

[โ€“] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I used it to identify the cell towers near my home and turn wifi off when I was out of their range and back on when I was in range. It seemed to help save battery by not constantly looking for wifi networks and I didn't have to remember to turn it off and on manually.

[โ€“] 200ok@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

That's smart!

I have a few triggers that turn on Do Not Disturb mode:

  1. When I open an app that I doom scroll before I fall asleep and when I wake up.

  2. When I connect to my doctor's or dentist's office wifi.

[โ€“] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Cell towers are not wifi, but I think I understand what you mean.

[โ€“] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Never said they were lol

At home I want wifi on, and away I want it off. This saves battery so it's not constantly looking for wifi networks.

I could achieve similar with location service turned on all the time, but that drains battery even more.

Since cellular data is always connected to some cell tower nearby, and Tasker is able to identify the cell tower names, I used the ones near my home as flags to indicate "I'm close to home, therefore turn on WiFi because I'll be home soon". And turn it off when I leave my neighborhood.

[โ€“] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ok. I did not see what you meant.

I have a home zone that triggers things. I don't think location services uses enough battery for me to worry about

[โ€“] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

How does the home zone work?

For me location service eats my battery up - can't last a full day with it on.

[โ€“] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I do mine from home assistant. I can leave location services, Bluetooth, and wifi, all on without worrying about battery life for the whole day.

[โ€“] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I used tasker to display an icon on my status bar to tell me whether auto rotate is enabled or not. I kept lying down on my side forgetting that I had auto rotate on and my display would rotate when I didn't want it to.

It's an incredibly specific and minor thing that was annoying me, but tasker let me fix it. It's a great tool, but can be complicated if you aren't familiar with scripting. Luckily it's got some presets and a "basic" mode.

[โ€“] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

There's a completely free app (no ads, either) that prevents auto-rotate from actually happening unless you want it to. It pops up an icon when your phone wants to rotate, and it you don't tap it within the timeout (adjustable up to 3 seconds) then the icon goes away and the rotation never happens. It's highly customizable, and I just can't live without it since I found it.

[โ€“] 200ok@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I also find that super annoying!

I created a trigger to disable auto-rotate when I'm using the apps I'm usually browsing while in bed (i.e. doom scrolling social media) but I like your idea.

[โ€“] scott@lem.free.as 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I migrated to Macrodroid. Much more intuitive and straightforward.

[โ€“] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 points 2 months ago

You've reminded me that I have premium from like a decade ago. I should have another go with it.

[โ€“] abbenm@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago (4 children)

What are some things you use it for if you don't mind my asking?

[โ€“] silentdon@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lots of things

  • Change my ringtone based on time/location
  • Silence phone if my calendar has the word meet or meeting
  • Parse a local news website and read the headlines to me after I dismiss my morning alarm
  • Set up car mode if it is plugged in and connected to my car's Bluetooth
  • Turn on WiFi based on location
  • etc
[โ€“] allcretansareliars@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

I have a script which saves my fine location to a Google sheet when I disconnect from my car's Bluetooth. If, like me, you are the sort of klutz who can lose their car in a two-car garage.....

[โ€“] MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub 9 points 2 months ago

The main thing is a script to stop any media playing and turn off the screen after x minutes, so I can fall asleep watching YouTube or listening to something. There's probably already an app for that but this is pretty customizable.

Another stupid use is putting the phone on silent while using the camera app because Samsung won't let you turn off the camera shutter sound.

[โ€“] TunaLobster@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

I've got some that pulls the picture from Bing and the picture from NASA and set them to my wall paper and lock screen back grounds.

I've got another one that silences my phone when I'm at work or church and not connected to my car blue tooth. I used something similar in college to silence my phone when a calendar event was happening. My phone never made a peep during a lecture! It resets volumes to normal levels after the silent period is done.

[โ€“] Alice@beehaw.org 6 points 2 months ago

I used to get up at 5am and had to get ready for work in the dark so I didn't wake my family. I'm a klutz and fumbling with my phone's flashlight constantly just got annoying.

I ended up making a little script so that between 5am and 5:30, shaking the phone turned the flashlight on. After 5:30 the sensor turns off to save battery, since I didn't really need it at that point.

You can do all kinds of handy little things like that

[โ€“] Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 months ago

YMMV depending on your phone manufacturer (or, really, the OS). Some are too locked down to use Tasker, or need annoying workarounds to let it always run.

[โ€“] Pringles@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

I completely forgot I bought that once during a discount, but didn't even have it installed. Started using it now, thanks.