Why Use Flex Utility Premium?
This post is going to be somewhat promotional, but I really want to highlight some of the use cases for justifying the purchase and use of Flex Utility Premium for Flex drivers. Let’s look at what it does, and doesn’t do, and why it’s “The Better Way”.
What It Doesn’t Do:
Some people go into the app thinking that it’s an auto tapper of some sort, it isn’t, it’s never going to be. You’ll always have to manually tap with Flex Utility, both Free and Premium.
When I originally set out to create this app, I specifically wanted it to be a way for honest drivers to have an edge against those that use auto-tap methods. I’m not a fan of these methods and wanted to create a more legitimate solution to getting blocks.
Credentials, login, data mining… Flex Utility has none of these things. The app only request the permissions it needs in order to function. We are not collecting data on our users and we don’t believe that to be a good practice. It’ll never be a thing with Flex Utility. Never a login, never any credentials needed.
Ads.. Many Android apps these days will show ads and charge users to turn them off. We don’t do this. We’ll never do this, because it’s annoying and bad business practice.
What It Is – Without The Fluff
Without the fluff and promotional talk, Flex Utility is, at it’s core, an Android Accessibility Service. Google define’s Accessibility Services as:
An accessibility service is an application that provides user interface enhancements to assist users with disabilities, or who may temporarily be unable to fully interact with a device. For example, users who are driving, taking care of a young child or attending a very loud party might need additional or alternative interface feedback.
The bold part is very relevant to us Flex drivers. Flex Utility makes the A. Flex app more accessible and easier to use.
What It Is – With The Fluff
Sometimes you’ve got to fluff things up, because the technical terms are daunting. Let’s talk about each feature individually.
Accessibility Overlay:
The overlay button allows us to quickly get the blocks that we want using filters. With Flex there’s no time to read each block and determine if we want it. Often users will accept every block they can, and forfeit after. Flex Utility solves this, using the overlay you can tap with confidence knowing that the block you’ve accepted is the block you want.
Overlay Button – Behind the Scenes:
With each overlay button click the app is checking if filter matching blocks are present on the screen. If so, the app will click the block on behalf of the user, then it will swipe and accept the block. This all happens very quickly, much faster than a human can read and make a determination. Fast enough, hopefully, to have accepted the block before another driver does.
Filters:
- Station Code
- Filter blocks by station code.
- Hours
- Filter blocks by length
- Start Time
- Filter blocks by the time that it starts
- Pay
- Filter blocks by the amount it pays
The purpose of the filters is to allow users to ensure that they only accept the blocks that they want. Most drivers like to work specific types of blocks, the current state of the A. Flex app does not allow us to filter. Flex Utility allows user to set very specific filters, so that drivers can quickly get the work that they want.
Block Alert:
- Alert Sound
- Receive an alert sound when a block that matches filters appears
- Block Log
- Save all the information about matching filter blocks to a log file
The purpose of Alert Sound is to notify users that a block matching their filters has appeared on the screen. This allows us to tap for blocks, while simultaneously doing other activities.
The purpose of Block Log is to have a reference to look back with useful block information. Block Log saves all the info in plain text about a block when it drops. Time, pay, station etc.. We can use this info to determine, for example, when blocks of our preference are most likely to drop.
Why Use It?
I’ve been a Flex driver for a year or more. I’m familiar with the A. Flex app and it’s issues. I’ve paid very close attention to Flex driver communities and I know the gripes about the app that other drivers have. I’ve set out to remedy most of these issues. Many drivers have made great suggestions to the development of Flex Utility, and I have implemented these features.
My primary motivation is not money, this is a passion project, a learning experience, a community project. We are building the app together, and empowering ourselves as independent contractors.
Amazon is seemingly unable or unwilling to improve upon the Flex app and make the changes drivers have been calling out for. We’ve been asking for filters for a long time. All of the features present in Flex Utility should be built into, and developed by Amazon… but it isn’t.
Luckily we have Flex Utility and the community of drivers giving valuable feedback and support. I encourage you to try the free version of the app, and if you like it, go ahead and upgrade to premium for even more great features.
Appreciate it,Flex on!
