com.samsung.android.app.routines Copy

Shown as "Modes and Routines", this is Samsung's automation engine for Galaxy phones and tablets. Samsung describes it as letting you "automate your phone's behaviour by running preset actions when specific conditions are met", with Modes being predefined profiles such as Sleep, Driving or Work that change how the device behaves, and Routines being if-this-then-that rules built from triggers such as time, location or a connected Bluetooth device. It is surfaced in Settings rather than as a separate app icon on current builds. It is worth knowing how much reach it has. On this site's provenance data it is Samsung platform-signed and declares around 179 permissions on some builds, including location in the background, Bluetooth scanning, contacts, phone state, notification policy, display and audio controls, and FORCE_STOP_PACKAGES. That breadth is inherent to an automation engine that has to change device state on the user's behalf, not a sign of anything untoward, but it does mean routines a user creates can alter settings an administrator might expect to stay put. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk deployments Samsung documents this as a consumer convenience feature and gives it no management role in the material cited here, so the reading below is a judgement drawn from what the feature does rather than a Samsung statement about managed devices. On a dedicated or kiosk device it is usually unwanted, since a user-created routine could toggle connectivity, sound or Do Not Disturb behaviour underneath a locked-down experience. It is rated caution rather than safe because Modes are wired into the wider One UI experience, including Do Not Disturb style behaviour, and Samsung does not document what disabling the package changes; test on one device before rolling it out. Version note: where this lives changed with Android 13. Samsung states that "On Android 14 and Android 13, features previously in the Bixby Routines app are available under Settings > Modes and Routines", whereas on Android 12 and Android 11 the same functionality was reached through the separate Bixby Routines app. Guidance written for older Galaxy devices that refers to Bixby Routines is describing the same capability under its earlier name and location.

• How to use Routines on your Samsung Galaxy device - Samsung UK →
• Use Modes and Routines on your Galaxy phone or tablet - Samsung US →
• Package provenance for com.samsung.android.app.routines - Android System App Database →

• Signed by the device maker's own signing key (Samsung), so it is an OEM preinstall, and that single certificate is consistent across all 21 device profiles. It also signs the Android framework, so it is a platform-level key on its device(s). Inferred from the certificate appearing only on Samsung devices (508 packages, 10196 observations).
• Its largest observed manifest declares 179 permissions: 15 runtime (user-granted), 30 signature or system-level, 16 install-time and 118 vendor or uncatalogued.
• APK size ranges from 21.7 MB to 79.1 MB across the reporting device profiles, so the build differs substantially between them.
• Reported as an updated system app on 5 of 21 profiles - a newer build is installed over the one in the system image there.