Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET
One of Android's best qualities is its flexibility. If there's something you want to achieve on your Android phone, chances are pretty good you can accomplish it. As far as task automation, you can use the built-in Rules feature, but that's fairly limited. There's also Modes, but (again) that's fairly limited.
That's why I generally turn to an automation app to make the feature even more powerful on Android. One such app is called MacroDroid. You can read about what this app does in "This app has made me fall in love with Android," but here I'm going to take you on a journey of how to actually use it.
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As the name suggests, the app uses macros. Essentially, a macro is a rule or pattern that specifies how input is transformed into output to automate tasks or simplify complex commands. With regards to MacroDroid, you get a user-friendly GUI that simplifies the creation of macros, to automate tasks on your phone.
Trust me, this baby is worth the time, effort, and cost (you only get 5 macros for free, at which point you must pony up the $5 for the pro version). Once you experience what you can do with MacroDroid, you'll wonder why Google hasn't purchased the app and baked it into Android by default.
Let's create our first macro.
Creating a macro with MacroDroid
What you'll need: To make this work, you'll need to install MacroDroid on your Android device, which is done via the Google Play Store. The app is free, and the purchase of the Pro version is done from within the app. You also get a 7-day trial period of the Pro version.
1. Open MacroDroid The first step is to open MacroDroid. When running the app for the first time, you may see notifications that you have to give it certain permissions (such as access to notifications). As you create your first macro, you might also be notified that you have to give the app specific access to specific features (depending on the triggers, actions, and constraints you add). Show more
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