Tutorial

Locale lets you configure situations— circumstances your device might encounter throughout the day. Situations are made up of conditions and settings. For example, your "At Work" situation might activate when your location condition is "77 Massachusetts Avenue" and triggers your Volume setting to silent.

Locale has a number of templates that are available from the home screen of the app.

 
Pre-defined templates to help you get started. Note the list of templates can adjust as you use the app, suggesting different templates depending on what you’ve configured already.

Pre-defined templates to help you get started. Note the list of templates can adjust as you use the app, suggesting different templates depending on what you’ve configured already.

 

For now, let’s try choosing the “Turn off the ringer while asleep” template, which will turn off the ringer automatically at night.

After choosing the template, the situation editor will open, pre-filled with Time conditions and a Volume, Ringer & Notifications setting. First, let’s grant permissions so that the app can actually manage your settings for you.

 
permissions.jpg
 

Then look at how the situation is configured. When either of the Time conditions is met, ringer and notifications will be silenced.

If you’d like to adjust the times, tap on one of the Time conditions to edit it. (Tip: when there are two conditions of the same type, they are treated as OR. This makes sense because you cannot be in two different times at once).

 
asleep.jpg
 

Once you’re happy with the situation, choose save.

When returning to the Home screen, the app will suggest configuring the Defaults situation. Instead of undoing settings, the app reverts to defaults when a situation ends. Do you want the ringer to turn back automatically on when you wake up? Then you need Defaults!

 
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Go ahead and choose Configure to open the Defaults screen.

 
There are no default settings configured yet, although Locale has detected that the Volume, Ringer and Notifications setting is a good candidate because it is being used by the Asleep situation that we just created.

There are no default settings configured yet, although Locale has detected that the Volume, Ringer and Notifications setting is a good candidate because it is being used by the Asleep situation that we just created.

 

From here, we need to add a Volume, Ringer and Notifications setting that can turn the volume back on when the Asleep situation ends. Go ahead and choose Add Setting, and then pick the Volume, Ringer and Notifications setting.

 
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The Volume, Ringer and Notifications setting has a variety of options. Because our Asleep situation is already turning the ringer off, we want to choose “Allow all calls and notifications.” Feel free to adjust the volume level and choose whether to enable vibrate. When done, choose save.

 
volume_setting.png
 

After saving the setting, you’ll be returned to the Edit Defaults screen. From here, choose Save to finish configuring Defaults.

 
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That’s it. From now on during the Asleep situation, the volume will turn off. Afterwards, the volume will turn back on again thanks to Defaults.

Currently active situations are listed in the active situations card and they are also indicated with colored indicators next to the names in the situation list. A situation is considered active when its conditions are met, not whether it has any triggered settings.

On Android 12 and below, active situations are also listed in the ongoing notification. On Android 13 and above, the notification is only displayed if you’ve explicitly enabled it. You can enable the notification under the “hamburger” menu in the top left corner, then “Ongoing notification settings.”

Note that Defaults will always be listed as active. Situations are active when their conditions are met, not whether their settings are fired. Because the Asleep situation is listed first, it has higher priority. Priority is how conflicting settings are resolved.

 
Ongoing notification shows that both the Asleep and Defaults situations are currently active. Asleep is higher priority, however, and takes precedence.

Ongoing notification shows that both the Asleep and Defaults situations are currently active. Asleep is higher priority, however, and takes precedence.