Automagic Forum

Hi
I want to know what's the difference between launch shortcut and execute flows? which is better?
Which consume more battery. Because I want to execute some flows with overlay widget
Thanks in advance

Both do different things.
None of them consume significant energy... they just trigger something else.

The shortcut starts a particular activity/part of an app.
Execute Flow executes a flow or flows from within another flow.

Apples and oranges.

Depends on the need. Both doesn't consume battery as pointed out by digitalstone. But there are differences

Shortcut
1. You can add them to home screen or link to other app that support shortcut/intent
2. The flow require the trigger shortcut to be assigned. It can have other triggers too, but at least one of them must be shortcut
3. No parameter or existing variable will be passed
4. You have no option to long press, double tap or any swipe
5. It doesn't support to change its own icon if placed on home screen
6. Require minimum setup, as you don't have much option.

Execute flow
1. Only can be used by other automagic flow/widget, can't accessed by other app
2. The flow doesn't require any specific trigger. It can have no trigger at all, or any number of triggers.
3. all parameter from the existing caller flow will be passed to the executed flow.
Example : Flow A using trigger "App Task Started", and in the action call Flow B. When executing flow B, if you query value of trigger, it will be "App Task Started" (which belongs to Flow A)
4. Using with widget, you can have option long press, double and swipe if you use the widget as overlay (not as a usual widget in home screen)
5. Using with widget, you can have some action in the flow (script) to change the icon or color or any element of the widget.
Example : You press once, it will become green. Press the second time, it become red.
6. Require more setup when using with widget. You need to modify the widget to suit your need too.

If you need feedback or extra info, use widget coupled with execute flow. But if you just need some way to execute your flow and you have another way to tell the flow is running/executing properly (example notification or toast message), then just use shortcut.

For me, I use shortcut triggers the most. In fact, it is the most used triggers in all of my flows, I have 82 of them, representing more than 1/3 of my triggers. I still use widget + execute flow, but only when it is needed.