[Android Apps and Games] theGeekyLad:
HelloWorld, hope you guys are taking on the Corona crisis safely. :)

What started off as just means to kill time during the lockdown back here in India, eventually showcased some potential that deemed necessary an XDA post! So here it is, a practically end-to-end

Android automation tool that

can record and "replay" taps, swipes and programmatic button presses without breaking a sweat.

Check out this YouTube video that demos the project walks you through it with a simple yet cool scenario of automating sending messages on WhatsApp! :D

WHAT DOES IT NEED?

The whole thing comprises of an Android app as well as a Java command-line program that works across platforms - Windows, MacOS and Linux. It's super portable in that the app goes into your phone and the PC-side tool just needs

Java SE installed

. In addition, your Android phone must have

root access

,

USB debugging enabled

and a data cable for connecting it to your PC (oh yeah, with necessary drivers installed).

Note: If you're planning on just playing around to know how the whole concept of recording and replaying works, neither do you need the Android app nor do you need root. Skip to last section to know more.

WHAT CAN IT DO? - e.g. WhatsApp automation

Without sounding trite, lets understand what it does with just a simple scenario. If you were me, I'm sure it gets insipid sending quotidian morning wishes on WhatsApp, first thing waking up every morning. What if I tell you there's a tool that can watch you unlock your phone, open WhatsApp, open your desired chat, type out a message, send it, close the app and lock the phone all before you even wake up? Enter Replay.it. Jargons aside, with your phone connected to your PC via a data cable, this tool can record taps, swipes, button presses and common actions (both, as keycodes that you can check out here), have them sent over to your phone and have them "replayed" at a scheduled time as set in the Android app. Simply put, the PC-side tool is what watches you / records the way you accomplish a certain action (such as sending a message on WhatsApp) and the Android app is what schedules the replay. If you're in doubt, during replay it virtually looks as though someone invisible is at your phone tapping the screen, scrolling about and typing out text. :P

UNDER THE HOOD - It's open source

Clearly, the app requires root as injects touch, motion and key events on your behalf that isn't permitted with standard shell access. Technically, everything out here is ADB and you're free to view and contribute to the open source codebase that you can check out here.

FILTHY BUGS - You need to know

No piece of software ever, is bug free and just like that here's a little one. While taps are recorded fine, in order to log a swipe, you make the swipe gesture and once finished, you must tap somewhere on the screen. The trailing tap is what completes a swipe which if is not done, the entire swipe record just performed is lost.

WHERE CAN I GET IT? - Download & play

Okay, less of talk and more of work! Check out this GitHub repo for downloading the latest release and working with it. Finally, do check out the YouTube video demo and show some love!

Hope you guys find this tool useful. :)

Thanks and take care!