How to start tweaking your android phone with tasker
When it comes to Android automation apps, Tasker has never had much competition. But considering how difficult it can be for a novice user to get the hang of things, and factoring in Tasker’s drab and complicated interface, there’s definitely room for another developer to step in with a Tasker alternative.
Enter MacroDroid by ArloSoft. With its Material Design UI and step-by-step approach to automating common smartphone tasks, it’s the Tasker competitor we’ve all been waiting for. So if you’ve always found Tasker to be more trouble than it’s worth, I’ll take you through the easy process of using MacroDroid below.
Step 1: Install MacroDroid
First things first, you’ll need to install the free app. The free app limits you to five macros, which may be enough depending on what you need, and displays ads, but you can fix both of these with pro version available in the app for $2.99.
- Install MacroDroid for free from the Google Play Store
Step 2: Create a Macro & Select a Trigger
When you first launch the app, you’ll be greeted by MacroDroid’s simple and intuitive interface. To start automating smartphone tasks, tap the “Add Macro” button here.
Next, you’ll be asked to select a trigger for your macro. This is an event that will kick off your automated action when it occurs, and options here range from incoming calls to changes in the weather. Once you’ve selected a trigger, you may be asked to specify additional options, but this should be self-explanatory.
Step 3: Choose an Action or Set of Actions
After selecting a trigger event, you’ll be prompted to add an action or set of actions that will be executed automatically. Simply choose any action from this list, then verify your choice. When you’re done there, you can even add more actions if you’d like. Either way, make sure to tap the check mark at the bottom of the screen when you’re done adding actions.
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Step 4: Add a Constraint (Optional)
Next, MacroDroid will give you the option of adding a constraint to your macro. These are conditions that can either allow or prevent your macro from running in certain circumstances—for instance, when your battery is running low. This step is purely optional, so if you don’t need it, simply tap the check mark at the bottom of the screen.
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Step 5: Name Your Macro
After you’re done with the “Add Constraints” menu, you’ll be prompted to name your macro. You can also put your macro into a category to keep things organized, but when you tap “OK” on this popup, you’ll be done with your first macro. To view the macro you just created, head to the “Macros” section from the app’s main menu, where you can easily turn the macro on or off.
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Step 6: Use a Macro Template (Optional)
Next, take a moment to browse through the “Templates” section from MacroDroid’s main menu. This is a list of user-created macros that are preconfigured to perform many different tasks. If you find one that interests you, simply select it from this list, then MacroDroid will let you make a few tweaks if you’d like before importing it.
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Step 7: Kick Back & Let Your Phone Do the Work for You
With everything set up, your macro will automatically kick in when the trigger event occurs, and you don’t even have to interact with your device when this happens. Ultimately, MacroDroid will automate mundane tasks to make your phone behave exactly how you want it, and it does all of this with an incredibly simple interface.
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If you've ever thought "I wish my Android phone would do [X] whenever [Y] happened"—for example, text your significant other whenever you leave work; silence your phone when you walk into a movie; or turn on your ringer when you wake up in the morning—Tasker makes it possible.
We've shown you the ins and outs of Tasker before, but in this post, we'll hand you the tools (and the apps) to make your phone more powerful with considerably more ease than we have in the past. Whether you're a Tasker beginner or an automation pro, the apps in this post will make your phone easier to use, smarter, and even more battery efficient. You don't have to know the ins and outs of Tasker to install the apps here, but if you do and want to tweak the workflows yourself, we'll give you the tools to do it. Let's get started.
What Is Tasker?
Tasker is an automation tool for Android. Tasker can watch for certain conditions (from phone orientation and location to y and z), and when those conditions are met, it can do anything from open applications, toggle system settings, send SMS messages, and even speak alerts aloud if you ask it to. Virtually anything your Android device can do can be automated with Tasker, and when you combine Tasker's automation tools with conditions that you set, for example, "Arrived at work" or "Out of range of my Wi-Fi network," based on your GPS location, you can see how much potential the tool really has.
Tasker App Factory is an add-on utility for Tasker that allows you to take the workflows you create and export them as standalone Android apps (APK files) that you can send to friends so they can use them, share on the web as your own work, or even post to Google Play as standalone apps. In fact, the combination of Tasker and App Factory makes building a certain type of app for Android much simpler than developing them from scratch. With App Factory, anyone can install your action as a normal Android app and use it.
What Can I Do With Tasker?
We hinted at how powerful Tasker is above, but the sky's the limit when it comes to its real potential. Most users use Tasker to automate things they do on a regular basis that they wish they didn't have to—like turn on Wi-Fi at home and turn it off again when you leave the house. Even if you're new to Tasker, you can churn out some great profiles. We've shown you some great ones in the past , but this time we're going to give you the app to get the job done, and the code if you want to get your hands dirty.
I was using this version to have my phone lock when I put it in my pocket. I noticed my proximity sensor was always on though (little dim red light on my S3). So I made a modified version that turns the proximity sensor on only after it is turned upside down and only for a short time.
Vars:
Profile: Auto Screen Off 2 (Helper to check if phone is in a pocket or just upside down)
Profile Active Auto Screen Off 1 (Waits 'till the phone is upside down and not in a restricted app before turning on the sensor to check for a pocket)
Variable Set %PROXIMITY
ON (Tells Auto Screen Off it is okay to turn the screen off)
Variable Set %PROXIMITY
OFF (Resets the variable)
Profile: Auto Screen Off 1 (Turns off screen if phone is upside down and in a pocket)
Orientation Upside Down
App, not, torch , camera (This is for any app you might use upside down while covering the proximity sensor)
Wait 500 milliseconds (to give proximity sensor time to start and report)
System Lock – If %PROXIMITY
ON (Locks screen after checking if proximity sensor is covered)
Edit 1: Working on fixing the sitting case. Wait time changed to 500 ms. Time to test!
João Dias, the developer behind the popular automation app Tasker, has released a new beta version which makes it even easier to screen those robocalls (or your parents, if that’s your thing). Tasker 5.11.3 beta is currently rolling out in beta and adds a feature that can stop a caller from connecting with you before your phone even starts to ring.
The feature takes advantage of CallScreeningService, an API that was initially made available with API level 24 (Android 7.0 Nougat) but was changed in API level 29 (Android 10) to no longer require the call screening app to be set as the default dialer. As such, Tasker’s implementation of the feature is available to users of Android 10 and above. After installing the latest beta, users can set Tasker as their Caller ID & Spam app and consequently be able to set it up to screen or block calls according to the Profiles that they’ve set in the app.
João Dias has shared a video demo of the new feature in action:
The new Call Screened Event and Call Screening Action are the only significant new features in this version (but remember, this is only a beta), as the developer is mostly focused on getting Tasker ready for Google Play’s upcoming API level 29 requirement set for November 2nd. As a reminder, all new apps submitted to Google Play are already required to target API level 29, while updates to existing apps will be required to target API level 29 starting November 2nd.
Other tweaks in this Tasker beta version include the ability to convert sensor orientation coordinates to degrees, a fix for the camera action, and a number of other bug fixes. It has also added warnings to actions that have been temporarily scuppered by the API issue.
As mentioned, the stable version of Tasker in the Google Play Store won’t have this feature yet. If you’re in the beta program but you simply can’t wait, there’s a direct link to download the APK here. If you’d like to join the Tasker Beta program, you can do so here. And don’t forget, XDA has an entire forum full of hints and tips on how to make the most of this most powerful of apps.
Most of us think of Android as the perfect phone for tweakers and customizers: it's open source, it has a ton of different hardware options, and the OS lets you do a lot more out of the box. We think of the iPhone as a closed system, a horrible place for people that like to tweak their phones—I know I did when I chose Android—but that's wrong. The iPhone is actually the best phone out there for hackers, tweakers, and customizers. Here's why.
Those of you that read Lifehacker regularly know that I've been an Android fan for a long time, and I've written countless posts about picking your hardware , rooting your phone , downloading new ROMs , and otherwise tweaking the heck out of your phone . I even wrote a piece on the best Android features that the iPhone doesn't have . But, after switching over to the iPhone, I've discovered that tweaking and customizing my iPhone is easier, more fun, and in nearly every way just as powerful as tweaking an Android phone.
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Target breakouts and wrinkles at the same time
Each item is also free of all possible pore-cloggers and contains zero hormone disruptors.
There's no question Android can do more out of the box than the iPhone. Being able to automate your phone with something like Tasker is awesome. But, when you really want to get down to tweaking the nitty-gritty, the fact of the matter is that rooting is what opens up real possibilities . Unfortunately, rooting is about as big of a headache as breaking into a bank vault with a safety pin. You have over 100 different Android phones out there, each with its own rooting method, caveats, and risks that you have to research. It's so annoying that we had to turn our rooting guide into a guide for only the top 10 phones, in addition to tacking on an exhaustive glossary of all the crap you have to know before starting the process. Our jailbreak guide , on the other hand, is three steps long, which include "plug in your phone" and "click this button". It doesn't get much easier than that. And once you're jailbroken, you can do just about anything, including making your iPhone read your mind with Tasker-like automation. It's still not quite as powerful as a rooted Android phone, but it's pretty damn close, and with far less work.
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Everyone's Working from the Same Pool, Which Means More Tweaks
The headache doesn't stop with rooting, either. Because Android has so many devices and so many different versions of itself floating around (the sad downside of open source), a lot of the tweaks you get are sadly specific to a certain device or ROM. Tweaks that work with Sense ROMs won't work with AOSP ROMs, and Gingerbread tweaks probably won't work with Ice Cream Sandwich-based ROMs. With each phone, you only have a small subset of developers working for you and your software. On the iPhone, every developer is making an app for everybody's phone, which means you have a ton of different tweaks to pick and choose from—and no need to find out whether it's compatible with your hardware, version of Android, or ROM.
When you have an iPhone, though everyone is using essentially the same device you are. Everyone's developing for the same phone, and the same version of the OS. Not only are Android users limited by the huge number of devices out there, they're also limited by whether they've even been updated to the latest version of Android or not. Ice Cream Sandwich was announced last October, and only 50% of you guys even have it —and half of that 50% had to root and flash a new ROM to get it. And it's not as if everyone can even get a custom ICS ROM yet—many of us (including me and my sad Thunderbolt) are stuck waiting for the official kernel, radio layer, or other nonsense to be officially released by our phone manufacturer. So much for the advantages of openness.
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You Can Find Every App and Tweak in One Place
Lastly, we come to Cydia. Now, I'm the first guy to complain about how slow and annoying Cydia can be , but after coming from Android, I've realized that Cydia is the greatest thing to happen to us phone tweakers. Want to install an app, tweak, or customization to your iPhone? Chances are pretty darn good you'll find it among the thousands of apps and tweaks available in Cydia. Want to do the same on Android? Once you've narrowed down the tweaks that your device can actually use, you'll have to root through forums like XDA Developers or RootzWiki or countless others to find what you're looking for, and then sideload it onto your phone via Dropbox or USB. And don't even get me started on what happens when Megaupload or whatever hosting service they're using goes down—then it becomes even harder to find that tweak. Cydia takes two steps: search, tap to install. What kind of tweaks can you get? Some favorites of ours include:
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Tracking lost phones is big business these days, with companies like Apple and Samsung having their own services to handle it right out of the box. You can also use third party software if your device doesn't have anything like it built in (or you want more features). These won't do you much good if the phone is turned off of course, but there have been plenty of times when these sort of tracking systems have actually helped recover lost or stolen devices.
You don't absolutely need to have dedicated software for this though. Another way to go about this is with Tasker, the automation app I love talking about. Tasker's beauty is that it's very versatile by default, so you may be able to set it up to do things that the more specific tracking apps can't. Or alternatively, set it up to do much simpler, yet useful, event based alerts.
To start setting up such a "panic mode", you first need a trigger – something that activates it. I use the "Received Text" trigger that you'll find under "Event" and "Phone" when you create a context in Tasker, and use a specific code word in "Content" to trigger it. That means that the phone activates the mode when it receives a text message that contain the code word, regardless of who sent it. You can however limit it by sender as well. Other potential triggers might be location or inverted WiFi connection ("not connected") if your device is e.g. a home device that isn't supposed to go anywhere. There are tons of potential triggers, so just find something that works for you.
As for what is triggered by this, well, that's where it gets interesting. Your imagination and needs are really what sets the tone here. To give you some idea, here is my task list that is triggered by the incoming SMS:
- Raise media volume to max.
- Play sound file 1 (located on the internal memory). This is a voice recording of me saying (in Norwegian): "Hi this is Andreas Ødegård's phone. I'm either lost or stolen. Please contact me on the email address on the screen, or speak a message to me when this message finishes and it will reach me". The email address is visible thanks to WidgetLocker.
- Start audio recording. Save file as date – time in a pre-defined internal folder.
- Activate a profile that does nothing but start searching for a GPS fix.
- Wait 30 seconds
- End audio recording, save file.
- Pull GPS location.
- Save date, time, location, and battery status to a text file in the same folder as the audio file.
- Deactivate GPS tracking profile
- Play sound file 2: Notifies that the location has been read and sent to the device owner.
- Run Dropsync.
Dropsync is set up to sync the folder with the audio recording and the text file with time and location with my Dropbox account. It syncs every time a file is added or updated, so the last Tasker action is just in case the battery is below Dropsync's auto cut-off .
In practice, this makes the phone turn up the volume, play a message, record a reply, read GPS location, and send all that to a Dropbox folder. Do note that this is my secondary tracking system, not my primary one, so the fact that this is loud and obvious is intentional. You could just as well find the location silently, or do all sorts of other things. Heck, you could use text-to-voice to make the phone scream "help me" repeatedly if that's what you want. With Tasker running underneath a password lock, it should be able to run in peace until someone pulls the battery. By then, nothing else works either.
Of course this doesn't need to be for when the device is really lost or stolen either, it can just as well be for when you misplace it. A few tweaks, and your phone is screaming "over here" at full volume when you send it a message…or "I told you to keep it inside" when your kid carries your $500 tablet outside to play in the yard.
There are certain things you do on your phone every day, like launch navigation when you get in your car or set your alarm when you go to bed. With a few NFC tags and almost no effort, you can automate these processes and never fiddle with your phone again.
This process uses Near Field Communication (NFC), a feature we've talked about once before . You've probably even seen it in commercials, where people share playlists and perform other actions just by touching their phones together. Those uses haven't really caught on, but NFC tags will work anywhere—they're basically tiny stickers, keychains, and other trinkets that perform tasks when you tap them with your phone.
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Not all phones have NFC capabilities, but many of them do, including most newer Android phones from manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, and even Google's Nexus line. Before you continue, Google your phone to see if it has NFC built-in. We're going to focus on Android phones in this post, but some Windows phones might also have NFC built-in, so you can use this post as inspiration. Sadly, the iPhone currently does not have NFC, so iPhone users are out of luck.
What You'll Get
When you're done, you'll have a few small stick-on tiles placed strategically around your house, car, office, or anywhere else you want. Holding your phone up to one of these tags will perform a simple action right away, so you don't have to constantly fiddle with settings. For example, you could:
- Turn on your ringer and Wi-Fi when you return home
- Turn off the ringer and set your alarm when you go to bed
- Start the Maps app and turn on Bluetooth when you get in your car
- Launch your remote control app when you sit down on the couch to watch TV
- Set a timer for 30 minutes when you put your clothes in the laundry
- Start playing music or skip tracks
- Check in to Foursquare, Facebook, or Google Latitude at your current location
. all with a quick tap of your phone. No need to open any menus, or tweak any settings yourself.
I hope you are as excited as we are to continue with Tasker and root on our Android customization series. This week we are going the ultimate distance to save some battery life, let’s look at throttling your processor.
Before we begin
It should go without saying that you’ll need a fairly modern Android device to follow along today, it will have to be rooted and then you’ll need to install Tasker. Tasker is $2.99 in the Google Play Store.
Disclaimer : Please take note that messing the frequencies of your processor is a bit of a risky move. While we plan to throttle down, it is possible to overclock your CPU as well, which can cause overheating, which may result in a permanent physical failure of your chipset. Basically, a lack of care can easily brick your device, be careful.
Disclaimer part 2: The process looks a little funny sometimes and will have different results for most Kernels (and ROMs) out there. In our case, our rooted stock Android is a quad core device, while Tasker appears to give controls for each core individually, the option for ‘Core 0’ actually controls all of the cores together. You will need to play around to see if your device will even work, never mind how it works.
I fully admit that more than half of you that arrive here will be more interested in overclocking than reducing the clock speed of your processor, I’ll say that the process is pretty much the same, but I will not promote overclocking (today,) you’re on your own.
There are actually two aspects we are about to take control of, the first will be how your processor operates, then we’ll dive into actual frequencies. Let’s explore before we dive in.
> You wake up in the morning, get ready for work and groggily get in your car and set off on your commute. There are a variety of ways you could get to work, but unless you're awake enough to check your Google Now commute card to see if there are any traffic issues, you usually just pick your 'default' route and go. 30 minutes later, while sitting in traffic a mile away from an accident scene, you quietly curse yourself for not remmebering to check your phone before leaving.
This has happened to me on a number of occasions, and I created a Tasker profile to help me out. The following recipe is what I use, but obviously, there's more than one way to skin this cat.
CONTEXT
Name: Mazda (replace this with the name of your car's Bluetooth)
Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu or Fri (I work M-F)
From 06:00 Till 10:00 (I leave for work in the morning)
TASK
Timeout: 10 seconds
Code: (see snippet below)
If: %HTTPL > 0 (don't run the code if the HTTP Get above didn't return anything)
Text: Take %ROUTETOWORK to get to work in %TIMETOWORK
In English, when my phone connects to my car's bluetooth on a weekday morning, I get my current location, hit the MapQuest API to find up to 5 routes between my current location and my work address, and then use JavaScript to parse that data and determine which route has the fastest "realTime" drive time (this takes into account current traffic conditions). My phone's TTS will then say out loud something like this, "Take Rt 510 to get to work in 27 minutes."
All this within 10 seconds of starting my car and requiring zero effort on my part. Because I'm already familiar with all my commute options, I don't need directions, I just need to hear a street name that's unique to the route that will get me to work fastest.
This is the code that goes into the JavaScriptlet
There are a few pre-requisites for this profile to work properly.
A MapQuest Directions AppKey
Once you have one, store it in a global variable in Tasker called %MAPQUESTAPPKEY
Why MapQuest? Google Maps does not provide traffic-based travel times unless you pay for a 'Google Maps for Work' API key. MapQuest provides the same data for free.
A work address, stored in a global variable %WORK
I also highly recommend installing Google's TTS and then downloading the high quality voice package for your language of choice.
With some slight tweaks, I was also able to set up a similar profile for when I leave work, so I know which route I should take to get back home.
If you decide to give it a try, let me know how it works out for you, and if you made any improvements while using it. Thanks!
I've gotten a lot of replies and PMs indicating that Map quest no longer offers a free API that includes traffic information. If that is true, then unfortunately, it appears this task is DOA. Sorry guys.
