Getting Started With Tasker
Many of us have probably had a similar experience with the first time we used Tasker. We download the app, take our clothes off, get into bed and then realize we just aren't ready for this. So I thought I'd put together a small getting started guide for Tasker.
What is Tasker?
Tasker is an Android app that allows you to create automated tasks that are triggered based on selected circumstances... Ok that's already confusing so let me give you an example. I can program tasker to open up my shopping list every time my GPS location shows that I'm at the grocery store. I can also program my phone to to lock my texting app when I go to sleep so my girlfriend doesn't snoop through my phone. Now all I need is a girlfriend.
First be sure to download the app from the Play store.
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Scenes
Scenes are user interfaces that you can create in Tasker. Think of a scene as a box that contains various elements that you would normally find in an app interface, like buttons, text, text input, images, sliders, and so on. Normal Tasker actions can be tied to these elements, so that you can have a button that runs a task, a text field that lets you write text to a variable, or a slider that controls screen brightness.
Scenes can be all kinds of sizes, and be displayed in different ways: As a pop-up box, full screen like an app, as an overlay over another app, and so on. The size and type of scene depends on what you need the scene to do. I will quickly go through the basics of creating a scene, and then I will go through multiple examples at the end to show how everything works in practice and for different uses.
Tasks
Tasks are a set of customized actions. You can create tasks like "If the battery is below 50%, mute volume." Creating tasks is usually the part where most people give up. After all it looks like you're solving advanced algebra problems. Stick with it and mess around with it until you get the hang of it.
Profiles
Profiles are conditions that will trigger your tasks that you've created. I can create a profile that will trigger my mute volume task that I created above to only activate on the weekends. So then I know that every Saturday and Sunday my volume will mute if my battery is below 50%.
These settings will also take a bit to get used to. Don't worry, you wont hurt anything by messing around with them until it all makes sense.
This will get you started to the point where you can create your first automated task. Just start simple and then experiment with more complex tasks.
Related
A simple stopwatch and timer app that just works, looks great and is fully multitasking-aware. Get it on the Windows Phone Marketplace.
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A simple stopwatch and timer application that just works and looks great. Of course it has a stopwatch with laps and six individually customizable timers, but there's much more:
1. Never worry about multitasking
Whether you start it from the task switcher, Start screen or app list, EnClock will restore stopwatch and timer progress as if it was running the whole time.
2. Timer works in the background
Just like the default alarm app, even if the screen is off. Want to stop a timer midway through? No problem, thanks to the multitasking support Just start EnClock and you'll see the running timer. Tap "stop" – done!
3. Choose different sounds
You can choose between four different high-quality sounds for the timer. Or just select "none" and enjoy the silence.
4. Looks beautifully Metro
Tired of all the apps that are just "missing something"? EnClock feels perfectly at home on your Windows Phone, with smooth animated transitions, a minimal design, support for the light theme and an icon that changes with your chosen accent color.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is my first app, so if you find any bugs please let me know and I'll fix them. Suggestions and feedback are also welcome!
Suggestion: show total time for each lap
I would like to see a stopwatch app that displays both the lap time and total/cumulative time for each lap. So for example for each lap time shown in the display, you could show the cumulative time just below the laptime, indented or in a different font to make it clear that it is the total time.
I use the 'lap' time on stopwatches sometimes to time several competitors at once, so it is convenient to have the cumulative time displayed and saved. I can then see in one glance what the total time was for each person, without having to add up the lap times.
It's a nice feature that not many stopwatch apps have and could differentiate your app from the others.
Suggestion
When i open the app the title and image aren't centered. Centering it would make it the least bit better imo. Other then that the app is awesome.
Could you please add more alarm sounds? My Nokia 900 has dozens. Can you tap into the built-in sounds on the different phones? That would be sweet and I'd pay for it.
Best timer/stopwatch app i have used. Very reliable. So many times other timers havent set off the alarm and this one does it 100% of the time.
This is an amazing stopwatch app Very reliable!!
In most stopwatch apps (perhaps 90%), the time will be reset to Zero (0) if I click on the app icon instead of click Back. But we don't have to worry about that with EnClock Furthermore, the app runs very smoothly and doesn't need too much time for starting (Many other apps need lots of time to start )
I'm very happy that I found this app!!! Thank you so much
@Livven Can you add the function "Prevent lock screen", please? Because when this app is run, the screen still automaticly turns off after 1 minutes (exactly as the setting in "lock+Wallpaper". It makes me very tired
How Tasker Can Make You More Productive
Have you taken a look at Tasker and thought "Eh this isn't for me.." Well if so then that would make you a liar. Tasker is for anyone and everyone that wants to improve the way that they use their Android device. First thing you should know is that most of those mods you flash to get special features like Tap2Wake, Active Display, Silent mode when faced down and others are all possible with Tasker. You don't even need to root your device! So right there you're saving time and happiness. Let's take a look at all of the best ways that Tasker can make you more productive like a business man with a briefcase.
Automate SMS
Everyday I have to go pickup my stupid idiot brother from work. Once I'm there I have to fumble around with my phone as I spill hot coffee all over myself so I can text him that I've arrived. Well no more! I can automate an outgoing sms based on my location. So this idea is simple. I set a new profile based on location. I chose the GPS location of where my brother works. The action I attach to that location will be sending an sms to my brothers phone number that says "Here." Now the text will be sent automatically as soon as I pull into the parking lot.
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The same idea can be applied to locations on the road. So if I'm in route to my meet my brother at his work, I can program a text to be sent that says "I'll be there in 15 minutes" once I reach a specific location.
You can also schedule texts to be sent out based on date and time. Never forget about Mothers Day again and just tell your phone to text your Mom "Happy Mothers Day! I'll never forget about you!" on whatever day Mothers Day is on. Who knows.
Keep Track Of Time
Here's a pretty nifty one that some people are using. You can keep better track of time as it passes, by setting your phone to vibrate every 30 minutes.
Of course you can use this in anyway that you please. Maybe you set it to vibrate every 10 minutes from 8:00am - 9:00am every morning as you get ready for work. It's a simple task that can be used for many different things.
Create context-based voice reminders
Well here is a good idea. You can set voice reminders based on the time and date. At the end of every month you can have your phone yell at you about paying your bills.
So for a task like this to run, you'd create a new profile where the context is the date and the event is the reminder. This is another simple but very useful task.
Sensor Events
This is my favorite type of task to run. You can assign any type of task to run when it's triggered by a sensor. For example we can tell Tasker to launch Chrome when you shake your device. You can even program how sensitive the shake trigger will be and how long it lasts. But launching an app is just one thing you can do with it. You can also tell it to shut your screen off, send a text, make a call, kill a specific app and all kinds of nice things.
These examples are pretty bare bone but it's just to get you started. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be creating much more elaborate tasks that can do amazing things to help you be a more productive person.
Awesome stuff really like the alarm one
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk
Thank you for profiles.
You can use the "test app" feature in the application task section, and test against the Calendar app to pull data from it. Then you can manipulate this however you want, for example, when I dismiss my alarm my phone reads out my calendar events for the day. I will post a guide later today on how to do this.
I use a couple of profiles for productivity. The first is what I call active mode, which is a user created variable. If I'm in active mode and try to go on non productive apps such as a game or social media my phone tells me I'm in active mode and should do some work before switching back to my launcher home screen. I also have some activity tracking profiles which log when I start and finish something before uploading the information to a Google spread sheet.
I think that I know a way to accomplish what I am looking to do but it would require several profiles and several tasks. I'm new at this so I'm still working on wrapping my head around how tasker thinks and what it takes to get from point A to point B. I'm not looking for a step by step how to but more 1) to know if what I am trying to do is even possible 2) some pointers to get me pointed in the right direction if it is.
What I'm trying to accomplish, is a work profile that connects to wifi (that is the easy part) but then between the hours of say, 6 and 8, turn the volume down, turn the volume back up at break, turn the volume back down after break until 11am for lunch, turn it back up at lunch, and then back down for the remainder of the work day. What I am hoping, is that there is a way to create a task that allows me to turn the volume down if the time is between x and x or x and x or x and x.
Create two tasks. Task1 will put your phone on vibrate. Task2 will take phone off vibrate.
Create profiles for the time you want on vibrate calling for task1. On the profile you created, long-press the task and select an exit task. This will be task2.
Do this for all times you want using the same tasks.
Here is an example of how it should look...
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Thanks! That was exactly what I had done. I was just wondering if inside of the tasks themselves, you could set up time frames to do the specific tasks.. Its probably not an intelligent way to think or go about it.. I was just curious.
pulgoki said:
Thanks! That was exactly what I had done. I was just wondering if inside of the tasks themselves, you could set up time frames to do the specific tasks.. Its probably not an intelligent way to think or go about it.. I was just curious.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well as long as it is all set to specific lengths of time, you could use task/wait and have the task actually running all day. But I don't know what that would do to battery life...
Can't you do it by time and have conditions? For example
IF %TIME > 07.59 And %TIME < 09.00
ELSE %TIME > 08.59 And %TIME < 10.00
ELSE %TIME > 09.59 And %TIME < 11.00
End if
Also just to mention the time stated in that variable seems to be 24hr format, regardless of system settings.
Please advise tasker newbe about blocking/deleting unwanted notifications which contain defined phrases from any application (e.g. muting notifications about Google Play Framework missing (which is frozen)).
In other words, if any application displays its notification in the NotificationBar, and this notification has in its content any phrase from the list (defined somewhere by user before), then Tasker will remove this notification not to bother a user.
Probably it needs some variables:
- Notification ID
- Notification content
- List of phrases
In a profile there must be:
- Appearing a new notification
- In a loop, checking for every phrase if notification content holds it (grep ?),
- If it holds it then notification ID is written to variable and:
- Task is fired:
"close notification of given ID"
And how to code this into Tasker's language???
Please help in defining this, is it possible?
Look at AutoNotification. You can intercept other apps notifications and clear them.
Any possibility to code it in Linux style without third patty gui plugins? Anyway thank you!
pawwaap said:
Any possibility to code it in Linux style without third patty gui plugins? Anyway thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tasker can detect notifications, but can only read the title, I believe. It should also be able to clear them, though, I haven't look into it.
AutoNotification is better at handling notifications, that's for sure.
Yes, but maybe some text console Android system commands can read a notification content?
And also clear it, because can't find in Tasker any action of clearing a notification.
Tasker can do anything if you have sufficient knowledge. Learn how to create an app that does what AutoNotification does then use Tasker's intents/scripts to replicate it.
But then (and I say this a lot), why would you want the overhead of Tasker's framework? The whole point of plug-ins is to extend Tasker's capabilities.
And again, Automagic does it as easy as abc:
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Please, seriously asking, how advantageous is Tasker over Automagic (excluding rubbish like ease of use, clear GUI etc)?
Different strokes for different folks
Please, seriously answer, probably there is some trade-off between ease of use and effectiveness, stability etc?
I like how Tasker reacts on "shake" trigger, there is possibility to accurate define what sort of shakes, in which axis (left-right, to&fro) etc.
Automagic fails do it in such nice way.
Hello guys. When google maps completes a trip it displays a completed trip splash screen where one has to click Done in order to continue. I do lots of trips and would like to automate this with tasker.
I would like to schedule a task that will execute click of Done at the end of the trip so maps can go to their default screen of showing your location. I do lots of trips and i find this splash screen unnecessary.
Most of the tutorials i found use time as variable but time will change all the time so can not use time and need to use some other variable. Not sure how to set this up especially the variables.
Anyone can help me out what actions to setup in Tasker in order to execute this after each trip completes? Thank you in advance.
Get AutoInput Tasker Plugin. Then create a Profile-->event-->Plugin-->AutoInput-->UI Update. Set it up using guides/tutorials to monitor Google Maps for that "Done" button to appear. Then for the task, use AutoInput to automatically tap the "Done" button for you.
Watch a bunch of tutorials about AutoInput....it is the key here.
Stupifier said:
Get AutoInput Tasker Plugin. Then create a Profile-->event-->Plugin-->AutoInput-->UI Update. Set it up using guides/tutorials to monitor Google Maps for that "Done" button to appear. Then for the task, use AutoInput to automatically tap the "Done" button for you.
Watch a bunch of tutorials about AutoInput....it is the key here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi @Stupifier Thank you for that. I think i'm getting there but have last hurdle. One thing i'm uncertain now.
Do i choose for text YOU HAVE MADE or DONE ?
Should i check only clickable and "DONE" text and ONLY visable "YOU HAVE MADE IT" text ?
Anything for Variables ? After i create Profile and set all of that it won't let me complete without setting tasks. It want's to delete unfinished profile as no tasks have been set.
Here is the task / splash screen what i need to auto task / auto input. The automation of click "auto click" needs to be executed on Done button.
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What to put in for Text. Do i choose for text YOU HAVE MADE or DONE ?
Should i check only clickable and "DONE" text and ONLY visable "YOU HAVE MADE IT" text ?
Tasker won't let me complete it without tasks setup. I thought autoinput would set this up based on what i inputed into fields in screenshot above. I guess tasks are still missing? Thoughts?