Llama: Transform Your Android Phone to A Fully Automated Bot

By Trevor Dobrygoski | March 4, 2012 | 1 Comment

Having different profiles for your Android device is super handy. You can set up different volumes and notifications for different environments such as work and home. While it is cool to be able to manually switch your Android profiles when you need to, automatic Android profile switching is even better.

Llama is a great location aware profile switcher. What that means to you is, you can set up Llama to automatically change your profile according to the locations/events/conditions. For example, you can get it to silent your phone when you get to the movie theater or change to a more business-like set of alerts when you arrive at work. Best of all, it doesn’t suck up your battery life.

How to use Llama

Once you have Llama downloaded to your phone, you will see a little Llama icon in your notification bar. When you drag down the bar and click on the app, you will see some informational pop-ups. You may want to read the little pop-ups that describe what each tab does, there is some good information in there.

Edit Llama profiles

You will probably want to move on to setting up your profiles. Click on the Profiles tab and check out the default profiles, they may work for you. If not, then you can press and hold the profile name to get an option to edit the profile.

You can see there are quite a few options to personalize your Android profiles. Notifications, whether or not the volume will change when you activate this profile, in-call volume and even change the Llama icon so you can tell what profile you are on with a quick glance.

Setting up the locations

Llama is unique in the way it figures out where you are. Instead of using your battery draining GPS, Llama remembers the cellular towers you are on and associates them with an area. To set this up, you have to go to the Area tab. There are two default areas – Home and Work. By long pressing on either, you should see a pop-up with an option to Start Learning Area (you need to be physically at the location before you select the “Start Learning Area” option, else it won’t be accurate).

If you are at work for example, you can set the timer for a couple hours. What will happen is, Llama will remember the cellular towers near wherever you work. It may not even be a bad idea to have it remember some of the towers on your commute so your profile will switch before you arrive at your job.

Once Llama knows the towers in the area, you are good to go. Next time your phone is using a tower associated with your work area, your profile will automatically change. Pretty nifty, huh?

Special circumstances

There are always going to be special instances when you will need to change your profile while in a previously specified area. What I mean is, you may want your phone to change to silent around your usual bed time or dinner time. You can set up these special circumstances in the Events tab. You can go into (or create a new) Event and look at the Triggers and Actions.

The triggers are different applications, times of the day or other conditions that may override the area to change the profile. When you choose a trigger, you will also choose an action. As an example, you could have your mobile data turn off to conserve power when your battery power drops below 25%. Or you can create an event on Sunday night to remind you to turn on your early alarm clock alarm for work Monday morning.

Conclusion

Android users looking to automate their day a bit more, Llama is a great choice. With a little initial setup, you could save yourself a lot of time and worry about what your phone should be doing. The combination of the lower battery demands for keeping track of your location and being able to add special events, Llama has almost limitless configurations. And did I mention that it is very easy to use?

Download Llama Location Profiles for Android

How do you switch your Android phone profile when you arrive at work or a movie?

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Trevor is a freelance writer covering topics ranging from the Android OS to free web and desktop applications. When he is not writing about mobile productivity, he is a mobile productivity trainer for the busiest of all mobile users, working women.Random PostThe Mac User’s Guide to Time Machine zmiguel vizela

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