When you need to automate something on your phone, there's a good chance Tasker can do it. You just need to learn how to use it. Now, the app can do even more things, assuming you have the patience to figure them out. In v5.8, Tasker has picked up more features related to third-party apps, Bluetooth connections, HTTP requests, and more.

The developer of Tasker, as always, has been kind enough to provide a full (and enormous) changelog.

Added

  • Added App Changed event which triggers every time the foreground app is changed.
  • Added App Info action which returns a lot of info for the chosen apps. You can get info for the current app, for a previously opened app (like the previous app that was open, the second to last app, the third to last, etc), for an app that was opened X seconds ago (for example, the app that was opened 60 seconds ago) and for your most used apps (including the time you spent on the apps or the times the apps were open in a given timespan)
  • Made all actions that allow you to select apps (like the Launch App, Kill App, Network Access and Media Control actions) be able to set the app as a variable instead of just a static selection. Demo for 3 above features here. Get the demo project here.
  • Added HTTP Request action which allows you to do HTTP Requests of any type (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc) with any headers, body and file contents
  • Added HTTP Auth action which allows OAuth 2.0 and Username and Password authentication. Demo for the HTTP features here.
  • Added Bluetooth Connection action which allows you to force connect/disconnect/pair/unpair a BT device. Demo here.
  • Added Bluetooth Connection event which triggers when a BT device is connected/disconnected and gives you a bunch of variables with the BT device's info. Demo here.
  • Added Bluetooth Info action that allows you to get info on a single device, bonded devices or devices that can be scanned
  • Added Music Track Changed event - triggers every time music starts/stops/changes track; provides a lot of variables with track info (%track, %artist, %album, etc)
  • Added Input Dialog action to easily get a value from the user, without having to use the Variable Query Tasker scene. May be useful when sharing a project via Taskernet and setting a Launch Task to gather input from the user. Previously if user already had Variable Query scene, import would not work because of existing scene. Demo here.
  • Added option in Media Control action to try to use notifications to control if available, making it much more reliable
  • Added option in Preferences > Misc to include user variables in backups
  • Added option in Data Backup action to include user variables
  • Added Max Rounding Digits option to the Variable Set action when Do Maths is enabled: allows you to choose how many decimals you want to use for your math operations
  • Ability for Tasker events to set local variables in the entry task like plugins already did. The App Changed event is using this new system
  • Allows you to once again use the Services option in the App State condition by granting Tasker the android.permission.DUMP permission

Changes

  • Made %WIN updates faster and more reliable
  • %MTRACK now uses notification listener (in addition to the old method) to make it more reliable
  • Made adding new events much easier for the developer, so I'll have a much easier time to add new ones now ;)
  • Made all newer actions (the ones I've implemented) proceed in the task right away instead of some of them waiting ~1 second
  • Fix scenes not displaying variable values correctly
  • Made null output variables be empty instead of having the text "null"
  • Mobile Network condition now needs the READ_PHONE_STATE permission because it now uses a newer (more accurate) way of getting the state.
  • Added timeout to Authentication Dialog action. Otherwise it could get stuck forever.
  • When a new task can't be queued show a warning flash with the reason instead of just silently not working
  • Don't automatically focus on label when editing action if label is set
  • Added warnings that old HTTP actions are deprecated and that the HTTP Request should always be used instead

Bugfixes

  • Start Monitor in Foreground earlier to avoid crashes
  • Fixed long standing bug where Run Shell action would get stuck if output was too large
  • Fixed long standing bug where sometimes when you gave permissions to multiple SD cards, Tasker would stop being able to access them
  • Fix long standing bug where deleting a folder on an SD Card would not work if the folder was empty
  • Fixed getting Mobile Data type for the Mobile Network state (now considers connected mobile type instead of configured mobile type)
  • Fixed long standing bug where screenshots taken with the Take Screenshot action would end up with wrong dimensions
  • Fixed not being able to get some app icons
  • Fixed issue where sometimes task or profile list would be blank until Tasker was restarted
  • Fixed crash when showing task list on some devices
  • Mobile Data action now asks for root permission. It was mistakenly not asking for it before.
  • Fixed bug where sometimes receiving phone calls could stop the app monitor and would stop triggering app related profiles
  • Made some wrong error messages disapear from the Tasker log
  • When Google Sign in fails, show actual error that occurred instead of the generic "Result not OK"
  • Made all toasts show with the application context and on the main thread
  • Fixed asking for Write System Settings for Navigation Bar action
  • Fixed crash when using very large javascript libraries
  • Fixed some crashes

This update includes a few features of particular importance. For example, the third-party app integration lets you trigger events based on switching apps or launch an app. The Bluetooth features let you force connections, disconnections, and trigger events based on connection status. As always, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Tasker has more features than we can explain in a single blog post.

Tasker Developer: joaomgcd
Price: 3.49
4.6
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