Smart Actions

[fingaz]

The smart actions give your device a set of rules to follow. Lets say you want to automatically put your phone on vibrate during work or silence it at night. Go into smart actions and set the phone to be on vibrate during a certain timeframe. The phone will give you suggestions such as, power options for when your goes under 24% battery power left. Its pretty cool.



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[djstinso]

What needs to be understood for smart actions is this idea of triggers and actions.. It is kind of like "if then" statements in programing. The idea is that you can create as many or as few things you want in the trigger section (and action for that matter) and until all of the triggers have come true the actions can not start. One neat idea for you is that my wife works about 45mins away and has to drive the highway home from work at night. In order for me to not just sit and worry, I have her txt me when she leaves work that way I know she should (if all is safe) be home in about an hour.. With Smart actions I set up triggers as followed location (her work) time (between 5:00-7:00pm). Action send me txt message saying "just leaving". Now if she leaves work for say lunch and its not between 5-7 the trigger can not happen or if she is not at work the trigger can not happen. My advice is to play with it, the options are almost endless!

 

[SANhacker]

I like the ability to setup smart actions based on where I am. Most of my time is spent at home, work or the bar. All three have excellent WI-FI signals. When I am in the range of my home network, I set the volume to 100%, when I am in range of the bar network, I set the volume to 30%, etc. At 10PM I set the phone to vibrate regardless of my location. I also turn off cellular data when I am at any of the above which greatly reduces battery consumption. I use an app called "Verizon WIFI" to turn on these networks when I am in range. Together, this works great for location based actions. When I am out of WI-FI range, my cell data turns on. Very handy indeed. I'm finding my battery never gets below 40% during the day and I don't own the Maxx. Then again, I don't stream Netflix or listen to music all day either. It is something you have to play with to realize just how powerful it is.

 

[debdroid1a]

I tried SA for overnight and my Wordfued notification came on. I said silence everything I thought, but then noticed it was just for "ringtones". If i have to set it up to silence eveything individually, that's a pain, I'll just use my Silent Time app.

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[djstinso]

Well you have to realize there are way more things that Smart Actions can do than just silence your phone.

 

[debdroid1a]

Well you have to realize there are way more things that Smart Actions can do than just silence your phone.

Yes i do know that, I'm not THAT stupid (yes im not that smart but im not a complete dumby).

However i as stating one thing i did not like about it and choose another app.

I've only touched the surface thats why I'm asking for other things this will do.


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[djstinso]

I was by no means implying you were stupid. I was just stating that the other options beyond the silence at a certain time. I like the ability to send automated txt messages. Or I like the ability to set it up so when I go into certain buildings that my phone goes silent. I also like that I can tell it when I plug my ear buds in to start playing music, and stop data transfers. To the programmer in me the ability to use any "If then" statement is just amazing. I actually hope this is something that the ROMs expand on to open up more possibilities.

 

[LadyHottShott]

I'm looking forward to using these. I looked around a bit and got overwhelmed, haha. My hubby put a few on there already, not even sure what the heck he did. I will have to spend more time on it. My first smartphone if you couldn't guess.

 

[fingaz]

I wish there was a way to add more options to the smart actions. Like start playing a playlist at a certain time (for example, at 8:00a,, m-f when I am at my house, start playing up pandora.. cause when I am in the shower I like to have music playing), or turn on google maps or turn up the volume on everything if my GPS tracks is moving at a high rate of speed (driving on the highway).

Im sure they will only get better.... These smart actions have quite a lot of potential.

 

[LadyHottShott]

Oh my, I am figuring these smart actions out now. It's rather easy. I watched a video online, which really outlines how easy it is - much easier just to start from scratch IMO.

I just set it up for data to turn off when wifi on. To turn off ringer at night, except for my VIPs. I am on a roll! :biggrin:

 

[diablo85]

I just set it up for data to turn off when wifi on. To turn off ringer at night, except for my VIPs. I am on a roll! :biggrin:

i'm not seeing anywhere in my smart actions to disable cell data only.

 

[droidbound]

I like the ability to setup smart actions based on where I am. Most of my time is spent at home, work or the bar. All three have excellent WI-FI signals. When I am in the range of my home network, I set the volume to 100%, when I am in range of the bar network, I set the volume to 30%, etc. At 10PM I set the phone to vibrate regardless of my location. I also turn off cellular data when I am at any of the above which greatly reduces battery consumption. I use an app called "Verizon WIFI" to turn on these networks when I am in range. Together, this works great for location based actions. When I am out of WI-FI range, my cell data turns on. Very handy indeed. I'm finding my battery never gets below 40% during the day and I don't own the Maxx. Then again, I don't stream Netflix or listen to music all day either. It is something you have to play with to realize just how powerful it is.

Now this I find very interesting! I have my 'Home" Smart Action based on location. Similar to yours it then turns off cellular and WiFi on. I'd much rather have my home network be the trigger for 'Home", but then I would have to have wireless turned on all the time, and that's a drain on the battery too!
Can you elaborate on your setup with the different networks? Do you have your WiFi turned on all the time?
I wish Smart Actions would include negatives like: "If I am not at this location turn WiFi off". Lots more possibilities with that.

Here's one I tried today: I decided to buy a cheap generic dock for the car this time. It just galls me to throw away all the expensive accessories each time I buy a new phone. Without the D4 dock, car mode will not start up. My workaround so far:
Triggers are "Charging: any power source" and "Headphones plugged in". I never have the Droid on power when I listen to music, but in my car I connect it via headphone jack to the car stereo and to the car charger.
Actions: Ringer Volume: 100%, Screen brightness 85%, screen timeout: max, GPS on, Launch Application: Music
Works great so far! To be able to have 2 or more triggers that need to be true for the action to occur is very cool IMHP.

 

[LadyHottShott]

i'm not seeing anywhere in my smart actions to disable cell data only.

It wasn't a preset one that I saw, I had to create it. Trigger... Wi-Fi Connection, actions, Disable Cellular Data



One thing I'm mad about, why can't I get my phone to autoconnect to my wifi at home???

 

[droidbound]

[QUOTE+
One thing I'm mad about, why can't I get my phone to autoconnect to my wifi at home???[/QUOTE]

Maybe you missed the prompt to "remember" or "auto connect" to your home network the first time you connected to it? Have you tried long pressing your network and "Forget" it, then reconnect?
I am testing an app "Verizon WiFi auto connect" (I know, I know - I have a hard time with actually downloading a VZW app instead of trying to get rid of it, too). It's supposed to automatically connect to networks you specify when you get close and turn off WiFi when you leave - your home or office, for example.
I haven't had time to really test it, just walked around the block, and it worked as advertised on that occasion. I'm not really certain though if the app actually, really turns off the WiFi radio, but other people on the forum had good success with it. Saving battery and such...Very mixed reviews in the Market, possibly due to it not working at all on the Nexus.
In addition to the VZW app I created a Smart Action for 'Home" triggered by the presence of my home network.
I had the trigger set by 'location' but I get a creepy feeling about these things: Nobody knows I'm home but me and Verizon... Funny (or creepy) enough, I just made it through the door yesterday and got a 'quality assurance' call from Verizon. Call me paranoid....

 

[diablo85]

as a follow-up to why i couldnt see cellular data in my smart action rules, i went through and defrosted all of the bloat on the phone and now i have the option to disable cellular data in smart actions now.... now if i could just figure out what app it was that was preventing it from showing up...