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 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)