Busy Me is a simple, set-and-forget app that automatically sets your phone to vibrate during events on your Google Calendar and returns the ringer to normal afterwards. This is my first app and the idea came from the need to prevent me from being the "annoying phone guy" during meetings at work. It works so seamlessly that at some point, you'll forget it is installed.
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Features
- Select or ignore events based on calendar, event type and keywords
- Turn ringer back on after event ends
- Silence phone before meeting starts, delay turning ringer back on in case meeting runs long
- Only turns ringer off when ringer is set to Normal
- Does not keep turning ringer off if you manually set it back to normal during a meeting
Download
Beta Version 1.5.3-beta2
The beta version (which gets hotfixes and features first) is distributed through the Google Play beta-testers program and involves 3 simple steps:
Join the Busy Me Users community on Google+.
Opt-in to become a beta tester.
Download Busy Me 1.5.3-beta2 on Google Play Store.
Production Version 1.5.3
Download Busy Me 1.5.2 on Google Play.
Help
Using the "Use Keywords" Feature
1. Add "#busy" anywhere in your event's Description field.
2. Or, add your own list of keywords to look for in the event's Title (e.g., doctor, class, game, etc). Just separate your keywords by a comma and avoid anything that isn't a letter or number.
NOTE: Enabling the keywords feature forces you to use keywords all the time.
What is the difference between a Free/Available and Busy event?
By default, Busy Me looks for events with the "Show me as" option set to "Busy" rather than "Available." When you create an event, it is set to busy by default. You need to set your events to available when you don't mind being bothered. An example is a calendar reminder to feed your cats.
How to set your Calendar events to Busy or Free/Available
Option 1: From your phone:
1. Edit or create an event.
2. Press Menu button > Show more options.
3. Now you will see the "Show me as" option.
Option 2: From your PC:
1. Browse to http://google.com/calendar.
2. Edit or create an event.
3. At the bottom, you will see the "Show me as" option.
Changelog
1.5.3
- Beta and Prod versions are in sync
- Overrides previous notification rather than creating new ones
- Fixes rare situation where ringer no longer turns off ringer after you manually turn it on (override) during a previous meeting
- Fixes "Calendar not found" error
1.5.3-beta2 - 7/8/2013
- Overrides previous notification rather than creating new ones
- Fixes rare situation where Busy Me does not turn ringer off
1.5.3-beta1
- First beta-tester release
- Fixes "Calendar not found" error
1.5.2
- Adds Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) supported
- Removes support for Android 2.1 and below
- New icon
- Manually override ringer during a meeting
- New notification setting
- Fixes potential crash
Just my two cents:
It would be nice to have an option to change to vibrate some configurable amount of time before the actual calendar event (e.g., 5, 10, 15... minutes before), as some events may start earlier than planned, or have a "quiet time" before starting.
Regarding this feature
* Returns ringer to normal afterwards
Sometimes meetings, classes, or other scheduled events run longer than the scheduled time. Perhaps an option to delay returning to normal would be a good idea, or an option to have it NOT return to normal would be good. After all, the first thing most people do after a busy event is check their phone.
When I added the option to go into vibrate mode 5 mins before or after a meeting starts or ends, I tossed around the idea of making this time configurable, but I hadn't made it a priority. I think it's a good idea that I'll add soon. It wouldn't hurt to make the option to set the ringer back to normal configurable as well.
Thanks for the feedback.
capitalf said:
When I added the option to go into vibrate mode 5 mins before or after a meeting starts or ends, I tossed around the idea of making this time configurable, but I hadn't made it a priority. I think it's a good idea that I'll add soon. It wouldn't hurt to make the option to set the ringer back to normal configurable as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you make it keyword based as well? #vibrate for example? and #silent if you really don't want to be disturbed.
Cheers,
Bart
Very cool app. Will be giving it a go today. Will let ya know how it goes.
Thanks for sharing!
I've been after an app like this since I got my Android phone. Just installing now and will report my findings......
Digi
Is it possible just to pick silent or vibrate. I like the idea of it vibrating before and after an event time, but I would like it silent during my busy time. Also I saw that you called it lite do you have a donation version as well?
capitalf said:
(...)
FEATURES
* Checks calendar for events and sets ringer to vibrate
* Event options: Busy (default), Available/Free, All Day events, events by keyword in title
* Can ignore events based on keyword
(...)
USING THE "USE KEYWORDS" FEATURE
1. Add "#busy" anywhere in your event's Description field.
2. Or, add your own list of keywords to look for in the event's Title (e.g., doctor, class, game, etc). Just separate your keywords by a comma and avoid anything that isn't a letter or number.
(...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Keywords feature, can you activate the vibration when a certain word is in the event name?
My calendar is closely connected with my work, so when I add a threeletter word in the start followed by a ":" my office phone is transferred to our answering machine.
All my meetings is like this: "MØT: Meeting title". If I could use the keywordfunction to activate vibrate whenever MØT is in the name that would be aewsome!
-sblindheim
bambam82 said:
Could you make it keyword based as well? #vibrate for example? and #silent if you really don't want to be disturbed.
Cheers,
Bart
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right now only the #busy keyword is supported, but I will be adding additional ones. Adding #busy is the equivalent of what you want #vibrate to do. Thanks for the suggestion.
ladykaya said:
Is it possible just to pick silent or vibrate. I like the idea of it vibrating before and after an event time, but I would like it silent during my busy time. Also I saw that you called it lite do you have a donation version as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm working on an option to select whether to go silent or vibrate when an event is found.
Regarding donate version, I don't have one.. yet. I'll add several more features to this version to make it usable by most people. And then some cooler, more major features (e.g., SMS auto-reply) might wait for to be brought exclusively to a paid/donate version.
sblindheim said:
The Keywords feature, can you activate the vibration when a certain word is in the event name?
My calendar is closely connected with my work, so when I add a threeletter word in the start followed by a ":" my office phone is transferred to our answering machine.
All my meetings is like this: "MØT: Meeting title". If I could use the keywordfunction to activate vibrate whenever MØT is in the name that would be aewsome!
-sblindheim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@sblindheim this is actually exactly what the Keyword option is for. I'm not sure if it will work with your "Ø" character though. Let me know. However, remember that if you use the keywords option, Busy Me will react to ONLY those meetings with those words in the title.
Another option is to have a Work calendar and have Busy Me address events on that calendar rather than using the keyword.
capitalf said:
Another option is to have a Work calendar and have Busy Me address events on that calendar rather than using the keyword.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since I already have my calendars set up this way (I have a specific calendar for my Pilates teaching schedule) this will work well for me, I hope!
Competition is good. I use a different app called "Setting Profiles" that seems very much like this.
How is this different / better than that app?
timehunter said:
Competition is good. I use a different app called "Setting Profiles" that seems very much like this.
How is this different / better than that app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Busy Me focuses solely on your calendar so it really isn't a competitor to Setting Profiles. Setting Profiles' competition is more less Locale, Tasker, etc apps that manage a lot more settings on your phone under a lot of different "conditions." I personally use Locale.. or at least I used to. It no longer has a free calendar condition (until I make one).
Since you're a Setting Profiles user and it has a calendar condition, how about you try out Busy Me for a bit and share your thoughts?
I used Busy Me yesterday for the first time. It worked, it set my phone to Silent when it was supposed to - but then it kept doing it for the rest of the day. I don't know what would set it off, but I'd hear the bzzzt and my phone was on Silent. I'd switch it back, and it would do it again. Last night it was sitting on the charger, I wasn't touching it, screen was off, and bzzzzzt when I picked it up and checked it was on silent. So I've disabled it for now (I'm not busy today anyways. Do you want me to enable it and try to get a logcat for you?
reinbeau said:
but then it kept doing it for the rest of the day. I don't know what would set it off, but I'd hear the bzzzt and my phone was on Silent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A couple questions..
What settings do you have enabled in Busy Me?
In the Calendar app's settings (usually Menu button > More > Calendars), do you have any calendars that show "synced, not visible"?
Did you have any All Day events on your calendar yesterday? You may even want to actually look on http://google.com/calendar rather than the phone.
I'm thinking you have an all day event on your calendar and have the "All day events" option checked. Or, you have a calendar synced (but maybe not visible) with your phone which has events.
capitalf said:
A couple questions..
What settings do you have enabled in Busy Me?
In the Calendar app's settings (usually Menu button > More > Calendars), do you have any calendars that show "synced, not visible"?
Did you have any All Day events on your calendar yesterday? You may even want to actually look on http://google.com/calendar rather than the phone.
I'm thinking you have an all day event on your calendar and have the "All day events" option checked. Or, you have a calendar synced (but maybe not visible) with your phone which has events.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have set vibrate early and end later, and I am only having it 'watch' one calendar, my work calendar. All the others are not checked (I have a personal one, and then Astronomy, US Holidays and Birthdays, but they are unchecked. Nothing else is checked.
I have nothing like 'synched, not visible' checked at all. No all day events. I am very careful with my calendar data, I use Pimlical, and need things to be accurate because I base my billings on it (I'm a Pilates instructor, teaching at various studios). The only calendar active in Busy Me is my Pilates work calendar.
@reinbeau - That's strange. I can't duplicate it but I'm trying to come up with a few hunches. If you disable your other calendars except Personal, does this still happen? Likewise, does it still happen with them enabled?
capitalf said:
@reinbeau - That's strange. I can't duplicate it but I'm trying to come up with a few hunches. If you disable your other calendars except Personal, does this still happen? Likewise, does it still happen with them enabled?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll fiddle around with it this week. I really can't disable my work calendar for very long, I need it As far as 'personal' calendar, do you mean 'My Calendar' the one that comes with the Captivate? I never, ever use that calendar. The one I use for my personal stuff is called 'Ann_Name' (my name, which isn't name).
I cannot believe there is not a program similar to the windows program "Keyboard Express." If it is useful on a computer it should be doubly so for a smartphone. I am really tired of typing out my email addresses for starters. I am not part of the texting generation typing with thumbs at 100000 keystrokes a minute. Swype is ok, but it would be nice if I could program long strings as a custom gesture or something. Also program macros that could launch programs in batches or with custom parameters. Find it amazing with all the apps out there that I couldn't find one that does this obviously useful function. Maybe I searched for the wrong thing?
I use an app called inserty. It's not as convenient as if it were built in to the keyboard, but it's very flexible, allowing you to insert canned text like email addresses and passwords or text with fill-in fields like the current date and time, your GPS location, etc.
The way it works is that it's a keyboard replacement. To insert something with Inserty, you long-press in the text you're writing, pick "Input method", and pick Inserty. That pops up a list of all your canned phrases; tap on the one you want and then it prompts you for which keyboard you want to go back to. The selected phrase is inserted just as if you had typed it manually, and you're back to your email or SMS or whatever.
As I said, it's not the most convenient mechanism you can imagine, although it certainly beats typing in my longish email address, but I don't think Android has the hooks to do anything less clunky.
The other thing I should mention, since you're a Swype user, is that the SlideIT keyboard has an abbreviation facility that you can customize. For example, you could associate the abbreviation EML with the text [email protected]; every time you trace "eml", one of the words in the suggestion bar will be that abbreviation (abbreviations are shown in green, IIRC), and selecting that entry will insert [email protected] into the text you are writing.
I use Clipper+
It's a clipboard manager. I have mine set easily access via the notification bar. The Snippets feature is what I use the most.
I can easily paste my 18+ character email address, login credentials, short phrases.
Check it out the free version http://market.android.com/details?id=org.rojekti.clipper
Thanks for the replies, I am exploring the programs mentioned. They might not be very direct, but useful.
I ended up using Clipper, it serves the function, albeit awkwardly.
Cubeology said:
I ended up using Clipper, it serves the function, albeit awkwardly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just want to say thanks for the thread....solved my long entry problems.
Macro Keyboard
Cubeology
You may try the 'Macro Keyboard' , which allows to define aliases
for arbitrary text. Texts can even be parameterized.
Have a look on the Android market. I am not allowed to post a link here yet
Regards
The author
Hey, not sure where to post this, but...
A good friend of mine uses an old Nokia flip phone(looking somewhat like a Nokia 2720), featuring a neat 'quick message' feature. I myself use an HTC One (International) and when she sends me one of these quick-messages, I simply get a standard pop-up containing the message with the options to save it or discard it (I do have a picture, but since I pretty much only lurk the forums I havn't posted enough to be able to add images to my posts)
Very useful feature for messages like "On my way", "Call me" or just "Ok ". What's really interesting is that Android (to some degree) have built-in support for this, What I wonder is if there's any (downloadable) app out there that utilizes this feature?
I think what you're looking for is message templates? and if so the stock messaging app has them in settings, or if you're on KitKat you can use 8sms.
No, I'm talking about a feature that allows you to send text messages that, on the recievers phone, aren't recieved in the messages app, but as a standard Android pop-up (like a standard Android warning pop-up, not like the usual quick-messages) with the option to either save it as a text message from that person or just discard it.