Automate by Llamalabs

[bogdyro]

@Murtuma: so basically running a flow with a loop that checks a condition every x minutes using action sleep in between is the same behaviour as what automate does with every flow? Battery usage is the same ? Keeping the device waken up until the sleep action passes ?

[MURTUMA]

so basically running a flow with a loop that checks a condition every x minutes using action sleep in between is the same behaviour as what automate does with every flow?

Probably not exactly the same, but the use cases are similar. That is if I understood you correctly as I have no experience on Automate.

Battery usage is the same ?

Battery usage is dependant on the actions and conditions and length of the sleep action(s). All the elements that are known to be heavy on the battery has a mention about that in the documentation.

Keeping the device waken up until the sleep action passes ?

This probably will increase the battery consumption. The rest of the elements in the loop defines whether this is recommended or not.

[Martin]

Actually I like the event driven style of flows much more than some kind of polling scheme.
I think that making a condition wait for an event is not a good solution since a loop usually takes some time to execute so the condition could miss some events in between when the system sends events rapidly. The condition would either have to build it's own queue of events to prevent such problems or the flow would have to execute a child flow to handle the event while the main flow waits for the next event. Somehow this just sounds a bit too complicated if you ask me.
Just curious, do you know how Automate handles such cases?

[mbirth]

Just curious, do you know how Automate handles such cases?

It's just like you guessed:

the flow would have to execute a child flow to handle the event while the main flow waits for the next event.

by the way: It gets really funny when you want to have multiple triggers OR'd:

Code: Select all

Use the Fork or Subroutine blocks to have two conditions perform the same actions:
            : 
         Fork --------------------+
            |                             |
+----->+<--------+  +----->+<--------+
|  Condition 1 ----+   |  Condition 2 ----+
|          |                   |         |
|       Fork --+           |       Fork --+
+------+      |           +------+       |
                  |                               |
                  +-----------------------+
                  |
     [common actions]

[P-chu]

Having tried Automate first before finding Automagic, I can say that it is still limited or behind Automagic and trying to improve. There are some flow boxes or capabilities that are not included in the initial install, which you would need to install the extension to get/enable (and there are a few of these). Also, some conditions need you to enable special permission or two to work (normally the ones that need extension), which some in the Automagic equivalent do not need permission. Automate does not require Accessibility permission by default for the most basic flows, but when you do enable it, it can interfere with the function of another app that also has Accessibility permission. The only option is to determine which app you want to disable the permission for, while Automagic has the option to try tweak its permission first to eliminate the interference.

The only things Automate has over Automagic as I've seen is that you can put notes under the title of the flows, and that its state conditions give you the option to either wait for the state to change, or to check and go to the next step. One thing about not waiting for a change is that, yes, you can add a sleep(duration) and loop, but in most cases, you should also add a counter (three more elements) to keep the loop from repeating endlessly unless you know for certain that it is near impossible for said state to not change.

Bottom line, for what I wanted to do, I would have needed two two extensions and the permission that caused an interference with a very important app I rely on. With Automagic, I went straight from programing my flow to working automation, and the default Accessibility permission did not interfere with any app. Also, as bogdyro had pointed out before, Automagic is more intuitive, and I find the flow editor is more capable/productive.

Lastly, I do believe the fact that Automate is free is the only reason users would try it over Automagic first (as it was for me excluding the safety issue with app stores).

[Markos]

Just my 2 cents: I had Tasker for a long time, then found Automate and now use Automagic. I don't know why I didn't install Automagic before...I think in the store it sounded a bit too easy or restricted while Tasker claimed to be the comprehensive solution I was searching for. Yet Tasker eventually was too restricted and cumbersome for me. So Automate with its graphical flow solution looked promising and more userfriendly so I switched to that. But now, having used Automagic, I can't believe how unnecessarily complex my flows needed to be in Automate. I thought graphical flows are not my thing because it would complicate things too much visually. But Automagic does it much better while being able to practically do everything I want. I still need to use some plugins, but Automagic lets me use them via Tasker-Variables. I hope compatibility to external apps stays one of the top priorities in the future.
Things I noticed though in comparison to the others:
- The question if I want to reuse a condition/action...I don't get it. Shouldn't that be under the hood? Why would I care about reusing a condition? If it's a complex http action or script I just copy the old one and edit the things I want. Everything else is an easy one/two click setup.
- Maybe a tutorial or even forcing people to use flows the right way. I saw questions in the forum and had my own when coming here. How to build up a complex flow with several conditions, what is the most battery friendly solution etc. I wasn't sure what happens if you set up multiple triggers in one flow. I know now by reading the forum that it waits for all conditions and they don't have to be true at the same time. That could lead to unwanted results if you don't know that. This is just one example. Generally, I think to not allow something to happen is the best way to avoid bugs or bad behaviour. For everything else a short "HowTo" tutorial clears things up.

Bottom line: Automagic is the best solution around for me.