Most people have played with smart automation features on our phones. Between Samsung’s routines, Google Assistant and Gemini feels There are many ways to automate a task like However, I’ve always found them to be disappointingly superficial, especially when compared to the Shortcuts app for iPhones. star.
Thankfully, there’s a third-party app called Tasker that gives you as much automation control over your Android device as you want. Once I tried it, the standard tools were empty and even more disappointing in comparison.
What does Tasker do?
Automation taken to the limit
Most importantly, Tasker is built to trigger specific tasks or actions when specific conditions are met.
At its core, Tasker is built around profiles—conditions that trigger specific tasks or actions. You can also define optional output tasks that basically rollback the changes made if the condition is not met.
The variety of contexts you can use is incredible. You are not limited by time or space; you can view Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections, app states, system settings, incoming messages, NFC tagsand most of your phone’s sensors. It’s also packed with over 350 built-in actions that let you control everything from notifications to music playback and connectivity.
Best of all, you don’t even need to root your device for the vast majority of features, although there are a few that do.
- Weight
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1g
- Colors
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White
- Connection
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NFC
These affordable NFC tags use the NTAG215 chip, which can store up to 504 bytes of memory. They easily stick to any surface and give you a convenient way to activate automations in your smart home.
Tasker goes beyond the automation you already have on your phone
You can design the rule you want
big problem with automations you can create with stock Android you are limited to a relatively small list of pre-approved triggers and actions. Tasker lets you control almost all of them. You can do it collect context, create your own variables and add as many layers of conditional logic as you like, which can lead to very specific automations. Stock tools don’t provide that level of granular control.
If Tasker’s built-in features aren’t enough, there are many plugins you can add, including AutoInput, AutoVoice, and Connect. They all do slightly different things, but they allow you to control other apps or even send commands to or from other devices.
Complexity has a learning curve
Of course, like any power user tool, there is a serious trade-off: the learning curve. The jargon isn’t very transparent (it’s not immediately clear what the variable actually does just by reading the term), and there’s no one-size-fits-all tutorial built in to get used to the software.
Even Startup Mode still gives you information very quickly. The first time I tried Tasker, I had to mess around with it for about 45 minutes before I fully understood how it all worked. Today, there is AI designed to help build automation. It’s decent, but it shares its problems
Try something simple as your first automation
I would recommend starting with something simple as your first automation, ideally something that annoys you in your everyday life.
Maybe you want your phone to automatically go silent when you’re in certain places, or you want the theme to intelligently change based on the time of day.
Create a simple profile: select a single context and add a task with one or two actions. Before you trust that it will automatically run as it should, use the manual run button to make sure the action actually works the way you think it should.
Don’t forget to add an exit task if the situation calls for it. Forgetting the proper Exit task caused me a ton of problems.
If you find building something from scratch a bit difficult, I’d recommend checking out a few pre-made options to get a better idea of how tasks, profiles, and actions are actually set up. Makes it very easy to build your own.
After tweaking it, Tasker is pretty incredible. I’m currently working on an automation that will automatically transfer all the screenshots I take during my workday to my desktop. Using KDE Connect so you don’t have to worry about moving files manually. After doing this, I expect it will save me a lot of time every time I cover a phone related topic.
The complexity is worth the trouble this time
Tasker can be pretty scary. If you want something simpler and arguably more intuitive, you can try MacroDroid or Automate instead. Also, Tasker isn’t free – it costs about $5 a time, or you can get it with a game pass.
However, for $5 and the time you spend learning it, you get to fix your phone road more personalized than is normally possible. Even smart AI features designed to “learn” from you can’t beat the flexibility that Tasker offers.
