Tasker has an impressive amount of triggers, actions, and parameters that can be used together in an incredible variety of ways. It can even accept scripts to follow instructions.
Tasker has the ability to create custom applications, effectively replacing multiple installed apps in your phone with tasks that are triggered automatically. What's even better is that they will be custom tailored to fit your specific needs.
Tasker has awesome plugin support to connect with hardware that usually requires installing specific apps. For example, it has a plugin for Pebble smartwatch so that you can automate tasks that require using Pebble.
Tasker lacks good documentation or tutorials, which is important as the learning curve is very high if you want to use its advance features where this app actually shines.
The dev does not keep bringing out revised apps expecting you to pay each and every time; the same app has been developed consistently for nearly a decade.
Many smartbulbs come with IFTTT integration, which lets you configure your lights to a whole new level. You can create virtually any recipe you could want - have your lights flash red when you get a text, or turn up the brightness when it's raining. How about flashing blue whenever the Toronto Maple Leafs score, or cycling through all the colours during a party? All of this and much more is possible with IFTTT when connected to the Internet of Things.
Llama's core feature is an easy to understand and use Events system. Events consist of Actions that trigger based on Conditions. You can combine this system with the Area and Profile systems to automatically adjust how your phone behaves in certain situations.
Conditions include:
Connecting / disconnecting a Bluetooth device
Entering / exiting Car Mode
Charging / unplugged
Day of the Week
Entering / leaving / being in / not being in an Area
Music starts / stops
At a certain time interval
Actions include:
Adjusting brightness
Adjusting music volume
Changing profile
Killing an app
Rebooting
Placing a notification
Running an app
Turn account synchronization on / off
Turn Airplane Mode on / off
Turn mobile data on / off
Turn GPS on / off
Turn screen lock on / off
Turn Wi-Fi on / off
Profiles are a quick way to change your phone's behavior. You can adjust settings such as ringtone and notification volume and sound, music, media, alarm and in-call volume, choose between ring / vibrate / silent modes, among many more options.
To teach Llama your current position, go to the Areas tab and long-press your current position, then choose Start Learning Area. The app will now and in the future identify that area based on cell towers in the location. The longer you stay within that area the first time you set it to learn, the better Llama will be able to identify that place.
You can also manually add or remove certain cell towers to areas.
Built into the features of the app, users can create profiles to then export them as a launcher app to easily be launched from ones home screen. Sadly though there is no way to add these to ones app drawer.
Of course you can turn rules on and off with a tap, but also
you can give rules priorities to indicate which wins in a conflict,
so for example, a location based rule says you're at home so volume is normal,
but your calendar says you have an event containing the word 'meeting':
you can set the "calendar event containing 'meeting'" rule to have a higher priority, so that it applies.
You can base rules on:
Time of day or week
Location
Calendar events
Bluetooth events (specific device or any device)
Wifi connection (specific network or any network)
Whether the screen is on
Whether you're charging the device
When the battery level is in a specified range
Whether your earphones are plugged in
If your car dock is connected
If your desk dock is connected
If a particular app is in the foreground
It can change lots of settings on your phone, for example you can use MyProfiles to put the phone on silent at the times in the week or in locations you shouldn't be disturbed. You can use it to put your phone into airplane mode overnight to save batteries, or when you have a meeting scheduled in your calendar.
This app has a much more intuitive scripting language with tons of snippets and function examples. More powerful, elegant, flexible, and seems less resource intense.
Instead of using GPS like other apps, Locale uses WiFi to determine a user's location when possible. This is one of the reasons that Locale is so efficient when it comes to battery life.
There are several forum posts on their website inquiring if the project is still being developed, and there do not appear to be any responses from developers. To add to this, the last update for this app was in February of 2014
This app tracks users by GPS and knows if they are sitting still, walking, running, or driving. This functionality can be used to trigger actions when a certain pace is achieved, such as "Play music when I start running."
The GPS integration can also be useful for triggering actions when a user leaves or arrives at a location. Popular recipes that use the GPS function are "Remind me to work out if I haven't been to the gym in 3 days" or "Text my boyfriend when I leave work".
While this app is incredibly useful, not much emphasis is put on making the UI pretty. This in no way effects the functionality of the app, but some users might find the basic interface unappealing.