Alternatives to Llama for Android

android-llama-alternatives.md

Goal

Find a replacement for Llama (R.I.P. 😢)

Conclusion

🦙 Keep using Llama! 🦙

• Llama still works and no other application seems to match Llama in terms of ease of use and cell-tower location (Llama's killer feature)
  • Cell-tower location UX seems to be unmatched by the alternatives (training new locations, ignoring towers, seeing location events)
  • It is also very easy to see all conditions and actions in one place, unlike most of the alternatives
• Tasker seems to be the best alternative, although it's not free, more complicated to use, and the UX around cell-tower location isn't quite as good
• Easer has potential but there isn't any advantage to it over Llama at the moment
• Automate is way too convoluted
• Locale X requires a subscription, so ... no

Motivation

• Llama hasn't been actively developed since 2014
• Llama is no longer available in the Google Play Store
• Some Llama features don't work well or at all in Android 11
  • Most of these can be easily worked around; see below

Using Llama on Android 13

Settings > Apps > See all ... apps > Llama > Permissions

1. Enable these permissions:

   • Files: (optional) to import/export configuration
   • Location > Allow all the time: (required) to see cell towers

2. These permissions will be enabled by default since it's an app for older Android:

   • Notifications: leave enabled
   • Photos and videos: leave enabled; file access is all-or-nothing since it's an older app
   • Nearby devices: disable unless you're using Llama actions to automatically pair/unpair Bluetooth devices
   • Music and audio: leave enabled; file access is all-or-nothing since it's an older app

3. Make sure Pause app activity if unused is unchecked

Using Llama on Android 11

1. Download latest Llama from https://www.mediafire.com/kebabapps/llama

   https://www.mediafire.com/file/5q7wpcfcacty8a0/Llama.1.2014.11.20.2330.apk/file

2. Install and enable permissions

   • Basic permissions (Settings > Apps and notifications > See all ... apps > Llama > Permissions)

     • Files and media: (optional) to import/export configuration
     • Location: (required) to see cell towers

   • Advanced permissions (Settings > Apps and notifications > Advanced > Special app access)

     • Modify system settings: (optional) to enable/disable screen rotation
     • Wi-Fi control: (optional) to turn on/off wifi

3. Limitations

   • Llama features that don't seem to work in Android 11:
     • Power off/on condition
       • This can be worked around by moving these actions into other events
     • Notification without an icon in the top bar
       • The notification can still be disabled altogether
       • If you set Llama to silent notification mode, Android 11 has an option to not show silent notifications in the top bar
     • Android 10 removed the menu for legacy apps
       • All features from the menu are still accessible through the llama button in the lower left
   • Features that are missing:

     • Night Light (blue light filter)

     • Bedtime mode (grayscale)

       (Both of these seem like they're part of the Google Digital Wellbeing app, so I doubt there would be an Android API to control them...)

Evaluation criteria

• Cell-tower location is a must-have because it uses much less battery power than all other location methods (Bluetooth, wifi, GPS, etc):

  virtually no extra power on top of power needed for normal phone service

  (Location Without Tears)

  • In Android, go to Android Settings > Apps and notifications > See all ... apps > Llama > Advanced and observe battery use will be at or near 0%

• Cell-tower location UX needs to be good (training new locations, ignoring towers, seeing location events)

• Easy to use, like Llama

  • There should be an easy way to see all conditions and actions in one place

• Google Play availability would be really nice for auto updates (I'm too lazy to install another app store, e.g. F-Droid)

• Open-source would be incredible, since if Llama was open-source we wouldn't be where we are today

• Free is always nice, although you get what you pay for

Detailed evaluation

App	Maintained	Available on Google Play	Free	Open-source	Cell-tower location	Notes
Automate	yes	yes	limited	no	yes	⚠ Very unintuitive to use Limit of 30 blocks in free version
Automation	yes	limited	yes	yes	no	⚠ No cell-tower location
Easer	yes	no	yes	yes	yes
LibreTasks	no	no	yes	yes	???	⚠ Unmaintained, low on features
Llama	no	no	yes	no	yes	Still works in Android 11 with limited functionality
Locale X	yes	yes	no	no	yes	⚠ No free version, requires subscription
Tasker	yes	yes	no	no	yes	⚠ No free version, only 7-day free trial

Automate

Very powerful but UI is too unintuitive to be enjoyable to use.

• Pros
  • Actively developed and in the Google Play Store
  • Seems to have more conditions/actions than Llama
• Cons
  • Limit of 30 blocks in the free version
    • I think for my basic needs this would be doable ...
  • Cell-tower location is just another block
    • Llama has cell-tower location as one of the basic UX elements so they're easy to set, easy to see when location has changed, etc.
    • In Automate it's just another block. How would we know if we were home other than by digging through and seeing which flows are running and which ones aren't? If a tower was changed it seems like it'd be a huge pain to update.
  • Kind of a pain to use
    • There doesn't seem to be an easy way to see all conditions and actions in one place
    • Some blocks are very unintuitive
      • In Llama I can just set a time (e.g. 7:00 and 19:00)
      • In Automate there's an await time and a time window
      • Time window? Then do I just set the start time and a duration? So not even an end time?
    • Not intuitive how to reuse flows
      • I want to have a reusable subtask to determine when I'm at home. Do I just create a flow and call it? What do I do with the Yes and No parts of the Cell tower near? block?
    • Not intuitive how/if to keep flow running continuously
  • Night Mode block doesn't seem to do anything (I'm not even sure what it's supposed to do)
  • No Bedtime mode/grayscale block (same as Llama)
  • Not open-source (same as Llama)

Automation

No cell-tower location

Easer

Promising, although the UI is a bit clunky

• Actively developed but not available in Google Play
• Free and open-source
• Seems to have about the same amount of actions (Easer: Profiles) as Llama at the moment
• Combining multiple conditions/events seems to be a bit clunky
  • Llama shows you in plain text exactly what's going on, e.g.

    At home between 22:00 and 06:00 - change profile to silent and disable bluetooth

  • To get something like the above, I think you would have to create two conditions (at home, after 22:00), make one the parent and one the child, then have another condition (after 06:00) with a separate profile (e.g. set ringer to normal)
• All conditions and actions can be seen in one place visually but not simply
• UX not based around cell-tower location

Basic usage:

1. Go to Data
   1. Go to Profile and create one profile with all the actions you'd like to take
   2. Create an Event (one-time) or Condition (ongoing) per situation that you'd like to trigger the Profile
2. Create the Script
   • From Data
     1. Go to Script and create a new script
        • Select a Condition or an Event
        • If you want to apply more than one event/condition, they will be set up in a parent/child relationship. For the parent, it will have no Predecessors and no Profile. The child will have the parent as a Predecessor and the profile you'd like to apply as the Profile.
        • You can go to Pivot to visualize the scripts
   • From Pivot ...
   • I think you would set up an AND operator by chaining the parent to the child, and an OR operator by having a parent with many children?

LibreTasks

Unmaintained and doesn't seem to even closely match Llama in terms of features

Locale X

Requires subscription? Ummm no

Tasker

No free version, only 7-day trial. Probably the best contender

• Actively developed and in the Google Play Store
• Simpler UX than alternatives like Automate
• Cell-tower support: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3UuEgX-qUQ
• However, the UX around cell-tower location seems to be lacking
  • No way to scan a location for X amount of time
  • Not sure how easy it will be to see quickly what location you're in (Llama has a dedicated Recent tab just for this)

Did you look at the Situations app?

@erikderzweite Does it use cell-tower based location? That for me was the defining feature of Llama that made it use a trivial amount of battery compared to other similar apps.

still nada?

Brand new Samsung Galaxy Flip 6. After jumping through too many hoops, I was finally allowed to install Llama, or so I thought. Was presented with a message telling me that the app was not installed as it is not compatible with my phone. Rest in peace, dear and awesome Llama. Rest in peace.

IMHO after about 2 weeks, Situations kinda sucks. I find it confusing to use and unpredictable in terms of what it does next. Feels like it's fighting me at every turn. I miss Llama! Can't some enterprising programmer buy it from the original developer and get it working again? Anyone need another stream of income?

Android 14 seems to block installation :(

Well yes... yes it does! Is there a way around this? Sent from Rogers Yahoo Mail on Android On Tue, Oct 22, 2024 at 4:55 p.m., ***@***.***> wrote: Re: ***@***.*** commented on this gist. Android 14 seems to block installation :( — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub or unsubscribe. You are receiving this email because you commented on the thread. Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS or Android.                                                            

For me Llama still works in A13. Anyway I would like to migrate to another tool but haven't found a solution for me, yet.
I do have a Tasker license, but I actually do not really understand it by now. Does anyone have a tip for a nice tutorial that helps Llama users understand the working principles of Tasker?

Also I would appreciate to find a solution to migrate my Llama rules to a successor app, even knowing that is wish is most likely not going to be fulfilled ;-)