Tu t o r i a l s
Automate your Android
phone with SwiP
Create trigger-
based profiles for
popular A ndroid
tasks, with this
open source
automation app
D
o you find yourself performing the same
tasks, over and over again on your Android
phone? It may be time tr y a task automation
app. You can use these apps to create profiles of your
most commonly used settings, for example a Home
profile where your dev ice automatically connects to
your home Wi-Fi. Profiles are triggered automatically
when certain conditions are met, for example when
your Android device’s GPS detects that you’re at home.
We featured some of the biggest names in
automation on page nine, but SwiP is a new release
that provides an open source alternative. This means
the app’s source code is publicly available, so anyone
can help develop it. You can download SwiP for free
from the Play store, which also contains a link to the
app’s source code. SwiP doesn’t require root, although
you can access additional functionality on a rooted
dev ice. SwiP currently doesn’t work on tablets.
SwiP comes with three example profiles.
Take a closer look at these by tapping their
accompanying pencil icons. The next screen
contains all the options you can enable, disable or
tweak as part of this profile. To edit an option, tap it
and make your changes in the subsequent pop-up.
Try sample profiles
1
Save your profile by tapping the tick icon in
the toolbar. You can manually activate this profile at
any point, but you can get more out of SwiP by
creating triggers. A trigger automatically activates
its assigned profile when certain conditions are
met. Tap on Triggers in the toolbar, followed by ‘+.’
Create a trigger
This menu is split into sections. In Sound^5
you can set the volume of your notifications, media,
ringtone and alarm. In Connectivity you can specify
whether mobile data, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are
enabled. In Display you set the brightness of your
screen and how long it waits before going to sleep.
Sound, Connectivity etc
4
To apply either of these sample profiles,
return to the main SwiP menu and tap the name of
the profile that you want to activate. The next step
is to create some custom profiles of your own.
Tap the ‘+’ icon in the toolbar and then give your
new profile a name.
Create a new profile
2
By default, every option is set to
‘Unchanged.’ This means applying the profile won’t
affect this item’s current state – if your Wi-Fi is off
when you apply the profile, it’ll stay off, and vice
versa. Work through this menu, tapping and
changing all the options you want to update.
Buildyourprofile
3
Works with » Android 4.0.3 and up