Actor has two main ways to help you: Automations and Apps.
They serve different purposes, and understanding them makes everything easier.
Automations = things that run for you
Automations are actions that happen automatically in the background.
You set them once, and Actor takes care of the rest.
Examples:
- Auto-label and archive newsletters
- Add travel time to meetings with a location
- Send a daily summary of your emails
- Create follow-up reminders after meetings
Think of it like:
“I want this to happen automatically”
Apps = things you open and explore
Apps are interfaces where you can see, manage, and understand your data.
You open them when you want insights or control.
Examples:
- Email Insights (last month activity, patterns)
- Subscriptions management
- Tasks overview
- Calendar overview
Think of it like:
“I want to see or manage something”
Simple difference
- Automations = do things for you
- Apps = show and manage things
Apps often help you discover opportunities, and Automations execute them.
Example:
- In Email Insights → you see too many newsletters
- You click → “Auto-clean newsletters”
- This creates an Automation that runs in the background
Behind both automations and apps is context about you.
Actor is learning from your style, your inputs, your interactions and builds a memory that is reused across tools.