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Easily set helpful reminders on your Android with on{x}
Every once in a while there will be an app or technology that I see on the Android platform that makes me wish I had an Android instead of an iPhone, and on{x} appears to be one of them. Pronounced “on-ex”, it’s a new app from Microsoft developed specifically for Android that let’s users easily set reminders. The reminders once set, happen automatically without worry from the user to have to set it up in the future, and the reminders are extremely powerful - let me explain.
on{x} uses GPS and text messaging to dig deep into it’s abilities. The way it works is that you can set reminders based on certain actions, and those reminders can text message them to yourself, others, make calls, and more. Let’s say for example, you want music to play when you are driving. You would set a trigger to be “driving”, and on{x} using it’s advanced capabilities will know when you are driving. When you begin driving, that trigger will automate your music to start playing on your device.
There’s a multitude of ways to use on{x} and Microsoft calls all the different methods “recipes” which they have a short list of posted on their Recipes Page. My favorite and the most popular is to “Remind me to take an umbrella every day the first time I unlock my phone, if it is going to be rainy.” How genius is that? I always forget my umbrella, so this could be valuable.
There are other good ones such as “Remind me to visit the gym if I haven’t been there for 3 days” or “Text my wife “I’m on my way” when I leave work.” I see one that could be perceived a few ways, for those significant others that don’t trust you: “When my boyfriend texts me “where?” reply automatically with my location.”
on{x) has it’s own API, so users that are tech-savvy can make their own reminders if a present one doesn’t suit their fancy. I really like the idea of “When I arrive home remind me to buy milk” but when I get home I don’t want to leave to go get milk, so I would set one up to say “When I arrive {location} remind me to buy milk”, with the location being maybe some landmark that can be geo-located on the map. Whatever the reminder, this application is very powerful and has lots of uses.
TechCrunch says Microsoft has built the app for Android (owned by Google) as an experiment as a new and different approach to combine their other applications they build. The team behind on{x} is the Israeli Information Platform and Experiences (IPE) which specializes in signal collection on mobile devices and location-based services.
