As far as automation apps on Android are concerned, Tasker is widely regarded as one of the best options out there. The app allows you to create Profiles that automatically trigger based on certain conditions to execute Tasks and it offers a vast variety of plugins that can help you automate pretty much anything on your Android device. For instance, a recent beta release of the app introduced full Do Not Disturb customization and Sensor actions, that let you completely personalize your phone’s Do Not Disturb mode and launch tasks that are triggered by values collected from your phone’s sensors. Now, the app is getting another significant update in the beta channel which brings even more to the table.
XDA Tasker Tips & Tricks Forum
As per a recent post on Reddit, Tasker v5.9.3.beta.4 is now rolling out to users and it includes a plethora of interesting new features. Here are some of the most noteworthy features in the latest Tasker beta release:
Contact Via App
If you’ve ever wanted to automate an action to start a WhatsApp chat, video call, or navigate to a contact’s address in Google Maps, you can now use the new “Contact Via App” action to do just that. The action lets you pick any contact on your device and then, depending on the apps you have installed, choose an action to perform. As you can see in the video demo, you can use this new action to launch Google Maps navigation to a particular contact’s address, initiate a Skype call with that contact, view their profile information in WhatsApp, or start an audio/video call with them on WhatsApp. While you could technically do all of this already by sending an intent, the new feature now takes some of the legwork away and makes the whole process easier.
WireGuard Integration
For the unaware, WireGuard is a brand new, modern VPN protocol that just made its way into the Linux kernel. In case you’re running a custom kernel with WireGuard support on your device, you can use the WireGuard Android app to control WireGuard VPN tunnels. However, turning the WireGuard VPN tunnel on/off is a manual process that could get cumbersome if you do it frequently. In case you wish to automatically enable/disable the VPN tunnel based on your current location, you can now do so with Tasker. Check out the demo video below to see how you can configure it on your device.
Along with these two features, the latest Tasker beta update includes several other changes that you can see in the changelog section below. If you’re interested in trying out these features for yourself, you can enroll in the Tasker beta by following this link and then download the latest release from the Play Store link below.
Full Changelog
- Added new Contact Via App action that allows you to communicate with your contacts via third party apps (eg Video call via Whatsapp, audio call via skype, etc)
- Added action to Control WireGuard tunnels in the Tasker Function action
- Allow Tasker Secondary app to be triggered by URLs like tasker://secondary?text=hello&other=hi where every parameter will be made available as a Tasker variable in the triggered task
- Added Query option to Do Not Disturb action
- Add option in Test Net to get your phone’s Wifi IP Address
- Fixed File Modified event in a variety of situations
- Added Event filter to File Modified event so that you can react to just a single event instead of all of them
- Changed %evtprm(1) for File Modified event from the path that is being monitored to the path of the actual file that changed
- Allow File Modified event to work with variables in the File Modified field
- Added %evtprm() to the variable list in actions that are in a profile that has an event condition
- Added Wait For File Event function to Tasker Function action so that you can wait for example for a file to finish writing
- Made moving projects left and right easier by asking how many positions you want to move the project instead of having to move 1 by 1
- Fixed issues with clipboard getting while in the background
- Fixed taking screenshots on Android 10, shouldn’t show the prompt on the screenshot anymore
- Fixed HTTP Request action when a gzipped response was gotten. Now automatically unzips it
- Fixed automatic redirections in HTTP Request action in some cases
- Added line separators in List Dialog action
- Made Get Sims action in Tasker Function action request the READ_PHONE_STATE permission
- Added Biometric permission to kid apps if needed
- Added tip about List Dialog action when using the Menu action
- Tried to make Tasker only check for root access if root actions are used
Source: Reddit