Locale X Public Beta 10.0.322

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.322 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Granting location permissions on Android 11 requires fewer taps

  • Performance improvements

Note: We normally upload Locale X to Avast’s whitelisting server, so that the app doesn’t get flagged. (Avast is overly protective about the system-level permissions that Locale X needs in order to change device settings on your behalf). However, Avast’s server is currently down so this update has not been whitelisted. We don’t want to delay releasing improvements to the app. If you use Avast and receive a message that this Locale X update is potentially dangerous, you can safely ignore this message.

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.317

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.317 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Fixed the “background permission revocation” prompt on Android 11 so that it appears at the correct time

  • Fixed a rare crash in the Home screen when checking whether location services are enabled

Note: We normally upload Locale X to Avast’s whitelisting server, so that the app doesn’t get flagged. (Avast is overly protective about the system-level permissions that Locale X needs in order to change device settings on your behalf). However, Avast’s server is currently down so this update has not been whitelisted. We don’t want to delay releasing improvements to the app. If you use Avast and receive a message that this Locale X update is potentially dangerous, you can safely ignore this message.

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.314

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.314 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Improved compatibility with Android 10 and 11

  • Compliance with new Google Play rules going into effect November 1. Locale X must now use the Locale X Wi-Fi Helper app to toggle Wi-Fi. In-app prompts will help you install the helper if it is missing.

  • Compliance with new Google Play rules going into effect early 2021, which requires that Locale X must now include a “prominent disclosure” about background location usage. As always, Locale X respects your privacy and only uses Location when both A. there are enabled situations using the Location or Wi-Fi MAC conditions and B. the background service is enabled.

  • Fixes to foreign language translations in the Subscriptions screen

Note: We normally upload Locale X to Avast’s whitelisting server, so that the app doesn’t get flagged. (Avast is overly protective about the system-level permissions that Locale X needs in order to change device settings on your behalf). However, Avast’s server is currently down so this update has not been whitelisted. We don’t want to delay releasing improvements to the app. If you use Avast and receive a message that this Locale X update is potentially dangerous, you can safely ignore this message.

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.312

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.312 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Fixed an occasional crash on the Overview screen

Note: We normally upload Locale X to Avast’s whitelisting server, so that the app doesn’t get flagged. (Avast is overly protective about the system-level permissions that Locale X needs in order to change device settings on your behalf). However, Avast’s server is currently down so this update has not been whitelisted. We don’t want to delay releasing improvements to the app. If you use Avast and receive a message that this Locale X update is potentially dangerous, you can safely ignore this message.

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.310

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.310 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Improvements to the Contact Support screen

Note: We normally upload Locale X to Avast’s whitelisting server, so that the app doesn’t get flagged. (Avast is overly protective about the system-level permissions that Locale X needs in order to change device settings on your behalf). However, Avast’s server is currently down so this update has not been whitelisted. We don’t want to delay releasing improvements to the app. If you use Avast and receive a message that this Locale X update is potentially dangerous, you can safely ignore this message.

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.309

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.309 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Improved compatibility with Android 11, which now requires the “background location” permission. Locale X will now prompt to grant this permission if it is missing

  • Performance improvements

  • Improved reliability when toggling Wi-Fi

  • Improved reliability when restoring a backup to a new Android device

Note: We normally upload Locale X to Avast’s whitelisting server, so that the app doesn’t get flagged. (Avast is overly protective about the system-level permissions that Locale X needs in order to change device settings on your behalf). However, Avast’s server is currently down so this update has not been whitelisted. We don’t want to delay releasing Android 11 compatibility improvements. If you use Avast and receive a message that this Locale X update is potentially dangerous, you can safely ignore this message.

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.300

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.300 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Improved power management

  • Stronger isolation between individual conditions and settings

  • Location detection improvements, especially in certain venues like transit stations

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.295

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.295 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Improved compatibility with Android 10 and higher

    • Short version: Install the free Locale X Wi-Fi Helper for Android 10 and above to enable toggling Wi-Fi. Locale X will provide an in-app prompt if the helper is missing.

    • Long version: Android 10 and later prevent apps from changing Wi-Fi. To work around this limitation, Locale X has been running in a backwards compatibility mode. Google will prevent app developers from releasing app updates with backwards compatibility mode starting November 1. In preparation for this, Locale X now uses the Locale X Wi-Fi Helper app which is a free download. The helper can continue running in backwards compatibility mode (without being updated), while allowing Locale X to continue being updated after November 1. Without the helper, Locale X will keep toggling Wi-Fi for a few more weeks but we recommend installing it now so that we can test this integration.

  • Improved compatibility with Android 11

    • Workaround for compiler issue preventing app installation on Android 11

    • Fixed crash during app launch on Android 11

  • Fixed crash if no contact is chosen in the SMS setting

  • Fixed non-English translation error in the help dialog for the situation templates

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.287

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.287 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Improve reliability of cloud sync

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.286

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.286 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Improve reliability registering with the cloud for configuration updates

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.285

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.285 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Fixed an issue where the list of Fired Settings in the UI would incorrectly be empty, even though settings had correctly been applied correctly in the background

  • Improved reliability during app updates

  • Improved reliability if the app is on the screen when the screen turns off

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.283

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.283 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Improved reliability of background service on Samsung devices

  • Fixed a rare bug where location pin could fail to show the pin on the map

  • Workaround for corrupted preferences caused by using backup and restore tools other than Locale X’s cloud sync

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.276

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.276 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Fixed an occasional UI error introduced in 10.0.275

  • Faster updating of configuration updates from the cloud

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.275

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.275 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Improved compatibility with Android 11 beta

    • Added a new card on the home screen to detect and warn about automatic permission revocation

    • Fixed location detection sometimes failing

    • Improved compatibility for the App Launch and Shortcut settings

    • Improved compatibility for plug-in settings

  • Fixed a bug that could cause location resizing to get weird after resizing twice in a row

  • Fixed notification to taking up to 1 minute to disappear after the service was disabled

  • Fixed the background restrictions card not going away immediately

  • Improved compatibility with some Samsung devices

  • Improved compatibility with Huawei devices running Android 10

  • Reduced disk storage usage by periodically optimizing the app’s database

  • Various internal performance improvements

Android 11 is in early beta and primarily intended for developers to test for compatibility rather than being stable enough for everyday use. Although we are being proactive in terms of compatibility, we recommend waiting until Android 11 is officially released.

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.238

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.238 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Workaround for a rare race condition in Android that could sometimes prevent the background service from starting

  • Improved the toolbar in the Calibration screen with a cancel button and improved title

  • The App Launch and Shortcut permission prompt is now faster on Android 10

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.226

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.226 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Fixed rare crash that could occur when displaying the home screen

  • Fixed a German translation in the subscription screen

  • Fixed a Korean translation when asking for location permissions

  • Improved reliability for headphone detection

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.213

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.213 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Fixed a rare timing issue that could cause UI to occasionally display outdated information

  • Fixed crash caused by malformed server response

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.208

Locale X is a major new version. For all of the new features in Locale X, please see the Locale X release announcement. 10.0.208 is a minor update with the following improvements:

  • Minor performance improvements

  • Minor UI bug fixes

  • Optimizations for Android R

Note: As a normal part of our release process to ensure high quality, updates to Locale X roll out in phases over about a 2 week period. Due to the pandemic, Google Play is additionally experiencing delays in approving app releases of more than 1 week. For these reasons, it may take several weeks before a specific update becomes visible to you.

Locale X Public Beta 10.0.191

Locale X is the biggest upgrade for Locale ever, bringing the most requested features and a powerful new design, while continuing to offer the legendary reliability that Locale is known for.

Locale X has been through an extensive testing process, with 300 alpha testers providing feedback since 2018. After this extensive alpha period, we’re excited that Locale X is now available as a public beta on Google Play. Locale X is a separate download from Locale 6.4.0, so you can upgrade at your own pace. For more information, see our upgrade instructions.

Refreshed Design

The new Locale X overview screen

The new Locale X overview screen

Locale X has a refreshed design, based on the latest Material standards. This includes a new icon and updated graphics throughout. And if black is your favorite color, there's also support for dark mode.

A new overview screen puts more status and information available at a glance. It shows when and why the app was last restarted, which situations are active, and which settings are currently fired. Plus intelligent new situation templates help you get more out of the app.

Performance has also been optimized. App startup time is more than 70% faster, with first launch faster than the blink of an eye. The interface is also now hardware accelerated for smoother performance. In addition, a number of subtle improvements have been made throughout. Calibration is faster to access from the Home screen. Situation reprioritization is smoother—just touch and hold on the name of the situation to drag-and-drop.

Cloud Backup, Restore, and Sync

Are you excited to upgrade to a new Android device? Now you can quickly bring your Locale X configuration to your new device too.

When you sign in, the app will automatically backup your situations securely to your account. If you have multiple devices, Locale X also keeps them synchronized in real-time.

Deep Android Integration

Enhanced support for VIPs through do not disturb

Enhanced support for VIPs through do not disturb

Looking for complete silence from all those spam phone calls and distracting notifications? Locale now taps into Android's Do Not Disturb functionality for even more control.

Worried about missing an important call from family or work? Locale X has support for VIP callers on the latest versions of Android. In addition to calls, messages from VIPs are also now supported.

The app politely requests permissions at runtime instead of at install time.

You can now hide Locale's ongoing notification with notification control on Android 8.0 Oreo and later. Find it by tapping the notification or looking under the "hamburger" menu.

A new Quick Settings Tile for toggling Locale on and off is under the Android notification pulldown area for quick settings.

Enhanced Conditions and Settings

Conditions and settings have stylish new vector icons that are razor sharp with different screen sizes.

Locale's built-in conditions have been enhanced. Calendar conditions automatically filter events marked as “busy,” as well as guide you to setup Outlook calendars. Location detection is optimized. Time conditions fire with higher precision. Face down detection is also faster and lower power.

During the beta a number of new conditions and settings are also being tested: The Headphones Condition detects when wired or Bluetooth headphones are connected. Use it with the new App Setting to launch your favorite music app when headphones are connected. A new Driving Condition detects being connected to a car over Bluetooth or Android Auto. And a new Display Rotation Lock setting can set the screen to vertical, horizontal, or automatic orientation.

conditions.png
settings.png

New Architecture

Locale's most important job is to be practically invisible while working reliably in the background. Locale X has a powerful new system architecture to do just that. This new architecture is hardened with isolation between components to optimize memory usage, improve performance, and maximize reliability.

The UI and background service now run in different processes, which reduces memory usage up to 90% when the app is running in the background. Conditions and Settings have firewalls between them, creating isolation for high reliability. In addition, each Condition and Setting supports hyper-parallelism which helps distribute work across multiple CPU cores. This also allows Locale X to continuously monitor and optimize CPU and power usage. With all this isolation, we designed a new scheduler that allows Locale X to update contextual data more quickly, while improving battery life.

Locale keeps an on-device memory of recent contextual data, called the Context Continuum, which helps the background service resume where it left off and reduces the number of times it fires settings that are already fired. For example, when adding a new situation, settings in other pre-existing situations will not be re-fired. In addition, settings from previously active situations will not be re-fired after updating the app or rebooting.

Finally, the app has a new download format which is optimized for size to save you bandwidth and precious space on your Android device.

Easy to Use

In addition to being more powerful, Locale X is easier to use. A new User Manual provides step-by-step instructions on how to get started with the app, as well as tips and common troubleshooting steps.

New inline tips throughout the app dynamically help to get the most out of Locale. A few examples include suggested Defaults based on already configured settings, suggestions to disable “battery savers” based on device and Android version, suggested calibration based on current location accuracy.

We’ve also improved Priority Support, enabling us to more quickly answer questions.

Internationalization

Locale X fully translated in 14 different languages, to better support our users across the world. The app is available in English, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Czech.

Hardened Security

Locale has always been secure and in Locale X we've made a number of advancements to harden the app further. The app now uses larger cryptographic keys, double-encrypts location downloads, and has additional integrity checks and cloud-based security monitoring for a more secure experience.

Plug-in API 2.0 Beta

Thousands of plug-ins have contributed to the Locale ecosystem. Today we're announcing an upcoming beta of a new plug-in API that makes plug-ins faster, more robust, and more secure while also supporting backwards and forwards compatibility.

The new plug-in API is already built-in to Locale X, and the documentation for plug-in developers will be made available in the coming weeks.

What’s Next

We welcome your constructive feedback during the Locale X public beta, as this is how we’re able to continue improving the app.

Please send us an email using Locale’s Priority Support feature under the Hamburger menu. (We don’t recommend leaving reviews on Google Play, because our reply is limited to Tweet length which is too short to troubleshoot anything).

In addition to improvements based on feedback, we have many great enhancements planned for Locale X.

We maintain a page of known issues that we are actively tracking during the beta period.