Featured Android App Review: Volume Butler [Tools]

Every now and then you find an app that is not only functional, but also well designed. Volume Butler, from TUOGOL, is definitely one of those apps. If you like customization, than Volume Butler is your app. Based on the name of the app, you can probably tell that it deals with the volume of your device. You would be correct, but this isn’t just another app for setting volume levels, this a full blown automation app.

For starters, Volume Butler lets you create Profiles for certain situations. Each profile has controls for the Ringer, Notifications, Media, Alarm, In-Calls, and Speakerphone. You can title the profile whatever you want and even choose from a variety of icons to represent it. Most newer phones have merged profiles for both notifications and ringtones, but with Volume Butler you can still adjust them independently. If you want to change your phone to any of these predefined profiles, you simply tap on any of the profiles.

You can take things a step further by creating Schedules around these profiles. For example, if you have a profile called “Silent” you can set a schedule called “Bedtime” utilizing the “Silent” profile. You can set it for whatever days of the week and at the specified times of your choosing. Volume Butler even offers what’s called a Quick Schedule. This is where you can predefine certain profiles to run for a specified amount of time. For example, you could set a Quick Schedule for when you are in meetings, and you can specify it to last 90 minutes. Now when you tap on the Quick Profile called “Meetings”, you will be in your chosen Profile for 90 minutes. When the time ends, it will revert back to whatever your current schedule was.

Profiles, Schedules, and Quick Schedules would already make a pretty good app, but we are only at the tip of the iceberg. Let’s talk about Notifications. Volume Butler allows you to set different sounds/vibrations for a set of notifications or individually per profile. In order to do this you do need to activate Volume Butler in the Accessibility Service. Each notification you set can be one or a group of apps. Not only can you set the ringtone, but you can also set the vibration pattern. Vibrations are set by pause,vibrate,pause,vibrate and the variables represent milliseconds (ie 0,500,250,800).

There is still more. Volume Butler lets you adjust settings for a variety of situations like if you are connected to a particular WiFi, if you’re device is charging, and even if it’s connected to Bluetooth or a headset. This makes setting things the way you want for when you’re home much easier. So let’s say you want a certain profile when you are home, but it’s hard to actually pinpoint a schedule for when you are actually going to be home. Just set the profile for when you are connected to your home WiFi and you will be good to go. You can do the same for work and so on.

Now if that’s not enough, how about the ability to set a profile for when you get an SMS text message with the text of your choosing or when you’re driving? The SMS setting can be useful if your phone was set to vibrate or silent and you misplaced it. All you have to do is have a friend text your device with what the keyword or phrase is, and the profile you set will be initiated. Hopefully that profile will have a loud ringer!! As to driving, Volume Butler can tell when you’re driving, so if you want a particular profile when in the car, just set it.

Shortcuts is another tool that you can use. It’s kind of like a widget. You can choose certain shortcuts and an app icon will be added to your homescreen. You can add a shortcut for one particular profile, all profiles, or a quick schedule. As to widgets, don’t worry, Volume Butler has four of them: a volume widget showing you the current volume levels for each category, a profiles widget that allows you to choose any five profiles to be included for quick toggling, a current profile widget that shows you the current profile, and a circular style widget that shows you the volumes for each category, but also lets you fine tune any of the categories individually.

Finally, if you are a Tasker or Locale user, you will be happy to know that Volume Butler can be utilized with either of those apps. This means you could utilize profiles in even more complex situations like battery percentages, calendar events, and so much more. The possibilities are endless.

I think you can clearly see that Volume Butler is the only volume automation app you will ever need. It does everything you could possibly want and then some. Volume Butler is free with some limitations. The free version is limited to 3 Profiles, 2 Schedules, 2 Quick Schedules, 2 Charge settings, and 2 WiFi settings. That is more than enough to see what Volume Butler brings to the table. If you’re as happy as I am, then it’s only an in-app purchase of $1.99 to give you unlimited everything.

Check out my hands on video below as well as the download links to get started. As always, let me know what you think.

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