Action Blocks

Google LLC

About this app

Action Blocks makes routine actions easier with customizable buttons on your Android home screen.

Powered by the Google Assistant, you can easily set up Action Blocks for a loved one. Action Blocks can be configured to do anything the Assistant can do, in just one tap: call a friend, watch your favorite show, control the lights, and more.

Action Blocks can also be configured to speak phrases. This can be especially useful to people with speech and language disorders to quickly communicate during urgent situations.

Built with the growing number of people with age-related conditions and cognitive differences in mind, Action Blocks can also be used for people with learning differences, or even for adults who want a very simple way to access routine actions on their phones. Set it up for your family, friends, or for yourself.Action Blocks now features tens of thousands of picture communication symbols (PCS® by Tobii Dynavox), providing a seamless visual experience for users of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices and special education software.

Action Blocks may also be useful for anyone who could benefit from an easier way to perform routine actions on their device, including individuals with dementia, aphasia, speech disorder, autism, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, Down syndrome, Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, dexterity impairments, or other conditions. People who use adaptive switches, Switch Access, or Voice Access may also benefit.

Action Blocks includes an Accessibility Service, and uses that capability to enable you to connect a switch. If you don't want to connect a switch, it works fine without enabling the service.

Learn more about Action Blocks in the Help Center:
https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/9711267

Ratings and reviews

This is one of the greatest app ideas I've ever come across. Various multi-step/click routines that I do on a daily basis are now just a single button push. Some more customization options (especially for the appearance of the buttons/widgets on the home screen) and a little more polishing would make this absolutely perfect, but other than that I have zero complaints. Having an entire control center to complete multiple daily tasks is a power users dream. Incredible work!

As long as I had it, it's worked perfectly and smooth. The only problems I have with it are; 1. You can't time blocks to happen at certain times of the day or during a period of time, like overnight "toggle do not disturb" or just automatically play music. 2. Sometimes the more complicated the commands are, the slower the Google assistant responds, but I understand that it is bound to happen.

Worked great until it started throwing this error: "Action Blocks can not access Google assistant at this time." Just stopped working out of the blue. I've restarted my phone, no good. Reinstalled the app, that didn't work either. Walked through the troubleshooting steps at their help page, nothing. I've grown very accustomed to using it over the past year - so much so, I've forgotten all the steps I take to set the movie night scene.

What's new

• Improvements that make it easier to select the type of Action Block you want to create
• Bug fixes