I love my Samsung Galaxy, but lately, I’ve grown tired of the corporate feel of its new devices and have been debating switch to a Google Pixel. Unfortunately, switching to Google’s smartphone would mean giving up one of the features I rely on every single day.
Samsung’s Modes and Routines Made Me Rethink Smartphones
Think of the average day, and you’ll notice how most of the tasks you do on your phone are highly repetitive in nature. You enable DND before bed, Bluetooth when streaming video, mobile data when heading out, and power saving when you’re low on battery.
No matter how excited we get about new features, most people use their phones for very basic tasks and in predictable ways. If that’s the case, then a truly smart smartphone should be able to anticipate your needs and adjust these settings automatically.
This is exactly what Samsung’s Modes and Routines feature is designed to do. It’s a dedicated automation suite on Galaxy phones that gives you an unparalleled level of device control. A mode and a routine do essentially the same thing but differ in how they are set up.
A mode is a preset configuration you can edit that Samsung has added for common tasks like sleeping, driving, or exercising. Think of it as an extension of Android’s Digital Wellbeing feature. A routine is like an IFTTT (If This, Then That) applet that allows you to change individual settings when certain criteria are met.
Routines are far more customizable and can be tailored to your unique needs. You can activate them manually via widget, voice command, or automatically based on location, time, and activity. Here are a few of the routines I use on my phone:
Of course, these are just a fewSamsung routines that get me through the day. But there are countless other ways you can set them up to fit your own needs.
Automation on Pixel Is Mediocre at Best
If I were to ditch Samsung for another Android phone brand, I’d likely switch to a Pixel. However, Pixel phones are missing much of the nuance that Samsung offers with its automated features.
For starters, you’re mostly limited to Google Assistant routines or the built-in Rules feature. The former is available on all Android phones since it works via Google Assistant. All the latter can do is change your sound settings (ring, vibrate, or silent) or enable DND when it connects to a particular Wi-Fi network or detects you’re in a certain location.
That means to use the Rules feature as intended, you’d have to have your phone connected to the internet and have your location setting enabled at all times. That is super wasteful for your battery, and I’d be surprised if anyone with a Pixel actually uses this feature.
I’vecompared Modes and Routines with Google Assistant routinesin the past, and the former came out ahead in every way. My main takeaway was this: Google relies way too much on its AI capabilities to bother developing a cohesive automation system. Samsung, on the other hand, gives you everything you could possibly want and more. you may evenuse Good Lockand some of its various modules, like Routines+, to create even more in-depth automations.
Switching to a Pixel would be much less painful if Google committed to offering something similar to what Samsung does. In fact, the groundwork is already there. All Google has to do is follow the blueprint Samsung has already perfected.
