Getting started with Tasker — #ProductHack
Ever wished your phone was that bit more intelligent, to do <awesome thing> whenever <some other thing> happens?
Well, Tasker may just become your new best friend!
Table of Contents
Tasker: Introduction | Download | Setup
Using Tasker: ‘Borrowing’ other people’s hard work| Importing Tasks shared on Taskernet| Becoming a Tasker-Master
- AutoApps: Introduction | Download
- AutoNotification: Introduction | Download | Setup | Use within a Tasker script
- AutoTools: Introduction | Download| Setup | Use within a Tasker script
- MailTask: Introduction | Download| Setup
Tasker
Tasker empowers people to automate actions, to turbo-boost your phone’s usability. Here are a bunch of cool examples people have come up with.
What’s more, Tasker also allows you to import pre-existing tasks, so if someone has already solved your problem, then you can benefit from their toil! (In the article below, I’ll provide links to some repositories of theses)
Since Tasker isn’t your typical app, it does require a bit of work to get started… below, I give an overview.
Download
Download Tasker from the Google Play store. Cost: €3.59
Setup
A typical mobile app is only useful when it’s in active use by the user. But Tasker is not typical! Once you’ve got your task working just right, the app is never again in active use — it does all the work without you lifting a finger!
Your Mobile Operating System is geared to optimise for typical apps, rather than apps that work in the background, so there are a few permissions you have to set get things running smoothly.
Nb. The following configurations should generally be applied to both Tasker, and any plugin apps (see later in the page). For simplicity, I would recommend downloading Tasker and any plugins you plan to use at once, and following the setup steps below for all of them simultaneously.
Keep-Alive
To stop your mobile operating system from over-zealously protecting its battery by killing your app, you should:
- Instruct the OS to apply no energy-saving policies to Tasker (also applies to any Battery saving apps you have)
- Grant the App permission to Auto-Start (so you don’t have to do this when you turn your device off and on, or if it accidentally gets killed)
Draw Overlay
Tasker also needs permission to display things on screen when it’s not in focus
- Grant the permission Display Pop-Up Window, and Display pop-up window while running in the background
If you do not activate this setting, you may see pop-ups of the following nature:
The precise way you will change these settings varies from device to device. For my phone these permissions are all found in:
Settings > Apps > Manage Apps > Tasker > Other Permissions
The following links may help you work out how to do this for your device:
Using Tasker
While the potential of Tasker is practically unlimited, it’s fair to say it isn’t the prettiest of apps or most intuitive of experiences…
Thankfully, there are ways of getting started with Tasker without a degree in Quantum Computing…
‘Borrowing’ other people’s hard work 🙊
Tasker projects can be shared by their writers as a free download so that others can benefit from their toil! You will find plenty of online resources where people share their work:
- Blogs: eg1, eg2, eg3
- Reddit: r/tasker, r/taskernet, r/TaskerFiles
And here are some of my projects:
- How I extended the battery life of my Bluetooth sleep headphones by 1000%! — #ProductHack
- How I send pay-wall articles from my Phone to Kindle in one click! — #ProductHack
Importing Tasks shared on Taskernet
Taskernet is a free online tool for sharing Tasker projects. Assuming you have undertaken the pre-requisites:
- installed and configured a Tasker
- identified a project you would like to import
- downloaded and setup any Tasker plugins the project requires
- obtained the Taskernet link for a project (which looks like https://taskernet.com/shares/?user=AS35…)
You are ready to import:
- On your device on which Tasker is installed, open the Taskernet link — you will be greeted with the Task Data “Import Screen”.
- To continue, press the green “Import” button — This will open the Tasker app and provide you with the Import Confirmation dialogue.
- Proceed with the Import process.
- Click “OK” and the Profile/Task/Project will be imported into Tasker —
- Accept the offer to enable the Profiles.
nb. Further details about the Taskernet import process here or here.
Becoming a Tasker-Master
For those without a technical background (or extreme patience) learning to use it is sometimes not straightforward! There is however a massive and supportive community behind the app with loads of resources online to help you get what you need out of it. This tutorial playlist is a good place to start.
Tasker Plugins
Tasker by itself is already super powerful, but lots of extensions have emerged to endow it with even greater superpowers and help users solve even bigger automation problems.
AutoApps
AutoApps is not a Tasker plugin per se itself, but rather a catalogue of plugins (all built by the guy who developed Tasker). It contains 17 different plugins at the time of writing (plus a further 11 in test releases), each with a nominal fee.
My projects use a few of the AutoApps plugins suite, which I will describe below.
Before I do, it is necessary to know that AutoApps is itself an app, and this is used to control access to the plugins. Therefore you should start with this.
Download AutoApps From the Google Play Store: Cost: FREE
Most of the plugins in the AutoApps suite have a small cost but are also available on a trial. I would advise against using the trial version and jump straight for paying the nominal fee since the trials come with restrictions which make their use in real tasks difficult or impossible.
AutoNotification
Introduction
AutoNotification allows me to intercept notifications (even ones hidden to you) generated by other Apps, and use them to trigger some other process. For example:
- in the Bluetooth Audio device Battery Saver (BABS) project, AutoNotification allows me to detect when audio has stopped playing, based on the internal notifications generated by all media capable apps.
- in the Forward Download to Ebook Reader (FEDR) project, AutoNotifcation allows me to detect that my Web Browser has completed a download.
Download
Download AutoNotifcation either via your AutoApps app, or go directly to the Google Play Store. Cost: €2.99
After opening the AutoTools app, it will ask for permission to access files. This permission is not required for either my BABS or FEDR projects, but whether you allow or deny it, it can always be granted or revoked later.
The initial downloaded version is a free trial, but the limitations the trial brings just don’t cut it for actual use. Go ahead and click on ‘Get Full Version’ and follow the prompt to the ‘AutoApps’ app to complete the purchase.
Setup
PHONE OS: Like Tasker, its plugins must also be given certain permissions in your Mobile’s operating system. I recommend doing this at the same time for Tasker and all the plugins you will use (see Tasker permission setup video above).
APP: There is one (harmless, but annoying) aspect of the app you’ll probably want to switch off. Within the AutoNotifications app:
Quick Setting Tiles > Hide all
Otherwise, there are no further required configurations to make within the App itself.
Use within a Tasker script
To start using AutoNotifications notification intercept function within your own Tasker job:
- In Tasker, on the ‘Profiles’ tab
- Click the ‘+’ icon (bottom right) to add a new profile.
- Give the profile a name and select the ‘tick’
- Select
Event>Plugin>AutoNotification>Intercept
The ‘Configuration’ on the next page will depend on the thing you want to achieve. Go ahead and follow the tutorial for either of my projects to see AutoTools in action.
Alternatively, see more tutorial materials for how to put AutoNotification into action here.
AutoTools
Introduction
AutoTools (part of the AutoApps Tasker plugins suite developed by the guy behind Tasker) allows me to do some of the fiddlier, more technical things that Tasker alone struggles to. For example:
- in the Bluetooth Audio device Battery Saver (BABS) project, AutoTools allows me to easily check if the specific Audio device I am interested in is connected and get its technical address. It also allows me to run a small piece of Java code to ask the phone if music is still not playing.
- in the Forward Download to Ebook Reader (FEDR) project, AutoTools allows me to run a small piece of Javascript to format a file path into the URI encoded format the MailTask app requires.
Install
Download AutoTools either via your AutoApps app, or go directly to the Google Play Store. Cost: €2.99
After opening the AutoTools app, it will ask for permission to access certain things. None of these is required in either my BABS or FEDR projects, but whether you allow or deny them, they can always be granted or revoked later.
The initial downloaded version is a free trial, but the limitations the trial brings just don’t cut it for actual use. Go ahead and click on ‘Get Full Version’ and follow the prompt to the ‘AutoApps’ app to complete the purchase.
Setup
PHONE OS: Like Tasker itself, to guarantee smooth running, Tasker’s plugins should also be given certain additional operating system permissions (see the subsection of the Tasker chapter and associated video above). I recommend performing these steps at the same time for Tasker and all the plugins you will use.
APP: Otherwise there are no further required configurations to make within the App itself.
Use within a Tasker script
AutoTools is like the Swiss Army knife of Tasker, there are far too many things possible to be able to make a sensible demo here.
Go ahead and follow the tutorial for either of my projects to see AutoTools in action.
You can see more about the possibilities enabled by AutoTools here.
MailTask
Introduction
MailTask allows me to automatically send an email from my email account with an attachment. For example:
- in the Forward Download to Ebook Reader (FDER) project, MailTask allows me to send a
.mobifile automatically to my Kindle’s email address, so that it can be read there.
Download
Download MailTask from the Google Play Store. Cost: €1.99
Setup
PHONE OS: Like Tasker, its plugins should also be given certain permissions in your Mobile’s operating system. I recommend doing this at the same time for Tasker and all the plugins you will use (see Tasker permission setup video above).
BASE APP: For MailTask to be able to send emails from your email account, you need to grant it access to your account. This is easiest when you have a Gmail email account.
When the send email task in your app is executed for the first time, your Google account should automatically generate an authorization notification and ask you for permission to proceed.
The following video contains some relevant information if you get stuck.
Summary
Tasker and its plugins offer an extremely powerful tool to solve phone usability problems. There’s a definite learning curve, but plenty of materials to plain ‘borrow’ and many tutorials to learn from.
Go ahead and follow the tutorial for either of my projects to see AutoTools in action.
