Android 10 Automation Rules Rolls Out To More Pixel Phones

Android is technically and legally a more open platform and yet it is ironically way behind in having a user-friendly automation framework. There is the powerful but often complex Tasker whose existence is threatened with every new Android release and security policy. Google itself may be working on such automation features built into Android 10 itself. But while it might now be rolling out to Pixel phones at large, it's still pretty limited in its functionality.

One only needs to look at iOS Shortcuts, formerly Workflow, to see the insane and brilliant things users can do with a proper and easy to use automation framework. At the very least, such features would allow users to hide often repeated actions behind a single button or command. Tasker does offer a lot more power than its iOS counterpart but it sometimes has to bend over backward to do so.

Google, being Android's creator, is in the perfect position to provide such a framework and it seemed that Android 10's "Rules" was to be that Except that it was only available on select Pixel 4 users and without much power at all. Google has finally rectified the former and Android Police reports that more Pixel phone owners across generations of Google's phone are seeing the new Rules section.

Unfortunately, not much else has apparently changed since the Rules feature was first seen last October. That practically means that the only actions available to users are for turning Do Not Disturb on or off depending on the Wi-Fi network or location. This would at least free users from having to manually silence their phones upon arriving at certain locations.

It's still an extremely limited set, however, and Google will hopefully expand that in the coming months. Rules' wider rollout might be setting the stage for that expansion, though it will probably take far longer or anything to dethrone Tasker.