Set up a device

Use the phone itself, not the computer. The file has to land on the device that will run your automations.

About 35 MB. The page will not change when it finishes.

The browser keeps finished downloads in its own menu.

Roughly halfway down the menu.

At the top of the list, under Just now.

Android asks before installing anything that did not come from the Play Store.

Play Protect blocks the install and calls the app harmful. MationX declares permissions Google restricts, such as reading SMS or reaching every file on the phone, because some blocks need them. Granting any of them is optional and the app only asks when you first use a block that needs one, but Play Protect judges the list, not what you allow. The Play Store version does not show this screen at all, so this file is worth the detour only if you need the proxy tunnel or a spoofed location.

It appears as plain text under the explanation rather than as a button.

Opening it from here saves hunting for the icon.

This is the app that will run your automations on this phone.

Scan the code below with the app, or type the six digits into the phone.

Or tap Scan QR code and point the phone at the code above, which saves the typing.

Worth reading once. It is the plain English version of what MationX will be able to see and do on this phone while an automation runs.

Enable Accessibility to run automations. Nothing else in the app works until this is done.

The first row under Required. The rest of the list can wait.

Google requires this wording before an app may ask for the permission at all.

MationX cannot flip this switch itself. Only Android can, in its own settings.

MationX is in there, not under any of the categories above it.

It reads Controlled by Restricted Setting and the switch does nothing. Tap the row anyway. This step matters more than it looks.

The dialog says the same thing again and has nothing you can act on. Closing it is what registers the attempt.

Back in MationX. It noticed the switch never flipped.

Nothing on the App info page itself is what you want.

The only item in the menu. The phone may ask for your PIN, pattern or fingerprint first.

Restricted settings allowed for MationX Client appears low on the screen and disappears after a couple of seconds. Nothing else on this page changes, so go back to MationX.

The same dialog as before. Everything works properly from here.

You have been here. The next screen is the one that changed.

It now reads Off instead of Controlled by Restricted Setting. That one word is the whole point of the last six steps.

The big one at the top.

Full control is Android's wording, written for screen readers, which is what this permission was built for. It is the same thing you agreed to earlier: MationX can see the screen and tap it.

Two taps of the back arrow returns you to MationX.

Accessibility is on and the red banner is gone. The two rows under it are the difference between a phone that runs what you start by hand and one that keeps working on its own.

This is not about pinging you. Android only keeps a background service alive if it can show a notification saying it is running, so this switch is what buys the service the right to exist.

Everything underneath can stay as it is.

Show notifications has gone blue. The last one is directly under it.

Stop optimizing battery usage is Android asking whether to stop killing this app to save power. For an app whose job is to keep running, yes.

All three required permissions are on. The phone is paired, it can run automations, and it keeps running them with the screen off.

Everything under Optional can wait. Each one unlocks a particular kind of block, and the app asks when you first use a block that needs it.