[APP][2.2+] Busy Me 1.5.3: Automatically silence phone during meetings

capitalf · Apr 12, 2011

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.

capitalf · Apr 12, 2011

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

c00ller · Apr 12, 2011

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.

capitalf · Apr 12, 2011

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.

bambam82 · Apr 12, 2011

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.

Could you make it keyword based as well? #vibrate for example? and #silent if you really don't want to be disturbed.

Cheers,
Bart

WhotahnHTC · Apr 12, 2011

Very cool app. Will be giving it a go today. Will let ya know how it goes.

Thanks for sharing!

digital_biscuit · Apr 12, 2011

I've been after an app like this since I got my Android phone. Just installing now and will report my findings......

Digi

ladykaya · Apr 12, 2011

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?

sblindheim · Apr 12, 2011

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.
(...)

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

capitalf · Apr 12, 2011

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

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.

capitalf · Apr 12, 2011

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?

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.

capitalf · Apr 12, 2011

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

@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.

reinbeau · Apr 13, 2011

capitalf said:
Another option is to have a Work calendar and have Busy Me address events on that calendar rather than using the keyword.

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!

timehunter · Apr 13, 2011

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?

capitalf · Apr 14, 2011

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?

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?

reinbeau · Apr 15, 2011

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?

capitalf · Apr 15, 2011

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.

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.

reinbeau · Apr 15, 2011

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.

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.

capitalf · Apr 17, 2011

@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?

reinbeau · Apr 17, 2011

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?

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).

[APP][2.2+] Busy Me 1.5.3: Automatically silence phone during meetings

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