How I use Tasker

[Guest Webreaper]

Here's what I have:

Location/State-based profiles

1. Contexts for Home, Office, which set a LOCATION variable based on CellID, or to empty if neither apply.

2. Context for SatNav, which triggers when I run CoPilot or Maps, and sets a SATNAV variable.

3. Context for music, which triggers when headphones are plugged in, and sets a PHONES variable.

So, Music takes priority, then satnav, then home/office, then "none". Each task sets different characteristics:

Music - turns off audible notifications, ups the media volume to 70%

SatNav - turns off keylock, infinite screen timeout, increases brightness, plus some other stuff

Home - enables wifi, turns the ringer off and vibrate on, switches to low brightness

Office - switches the phone to silent, disables wifi, etc

Out-and-About - auto-brightness, shorter screen timeout, loud ringtone etc

After each context triggers and the state variable is set, I call the task "Evaluate Location" which is a hierarchical tiered task that calls subtasks based on the state of the vars. The reason I do it like this is because the interaction between profiles is complex. For example, consider:

1. Plug in my headphones

2. Leave the house

3. Head to station

4. Get off at destination

5. Enter office

6. Unplug headphones

I clearly don't want the volume muted at item 5, or my music goes silent. Likewise, If I get in the car, start satnave mode, and drive somewhere, I don't want my "out-and-about" profile to kick in when I get 0.5 miles from my house and suddenly have the screen timeout set back to 30s so the screen turns off and I can't see where I'm going.

Commute Notification

I have two location-based contexts - one for the station I catch my train home from, and one for about 5 miles outside the station. When I enter the station, a variable COMMUTE is set to "start". When I pass the 2nd location, if COMMUTE is set to start, it calculates 45 minutes from the current time and sends an SMS to my wife saying "Will be home at xx:xx o'clock". If I get home or to the office, the COMMUTE variable is cleared. This means that the notification doesn't trigger on my inward journey, nor does it fire until my train has actually left the station, so it won't give a misleading update if I'm hanging around on the platform at the station because my train is late.

App states

When reading in Kindle or NewsRob, I have a context which sets the screen brightness and timeout.

Data Connectivity

Ever since Froyo, I occasionally find that my N1 doesn't connect to my wifi first time, which means it ends up wasting data. So I have a task which checks if I'm at home, and if not connected to wifi, disables wifi, waits a minute and then enables it again. It loops doing this every 3 minutes until a wifi connection is properly established.

Likewise, sometimes when I leave home, Wifi is disabled but a 3G connection doesn't get initiated quickly. So I have a task which checks if I have no wifi connection but no 3G, and if that state remains after 1 minute, it toggles flight mode and tries again. The task has an override so it doesn't kick in if I'm on a call!

Not sure if either of these two are required now I have Gingerbread - haven't tested to see if these problems still happen.

Silent mode

Long-press on the search key toggles silent mode, with a short vibrate notification.

App Syncing

At 4am each morning, if my device is charging and connected to wi-fi, NewsRob and BeyondPod sync to download content and Podcasts. This means I always have content for my commute, but if I'm not at home I don't waste 3G data or battery power.

Call Blocking

I have a context which automatically ends the call (sending it to voicemail) if the number is unknown. This stops me having to answer unsolicited/spam calls. This can be disabled via a widget which toggles a variable state.

Overrides

I have a widget on the home screen which displays the state - e.g., the location (Home/Office/Out & About), plus other over-rides such as a X if the phone is on silent, and an indication of whether call blocking is enabled. Tapping the widget pops up a menu which allows me to launch other tasks such as a "keep the screen on" state, toggling silent mode, etc.

[Guest StuMcBill]

Then add state Variable Value to your toggle profile specifying Isn't

Set %INCALL.

Ok I think I have the variables set, but I am not sure how to do this ^^

Stewart

AHA I THINK I HAVE GOT IT!!!!!

Sorry for shouting! :D

One more thing, I would like it to wait for 2 minutes after the WiFi disconnects before it does the 2G/3G switch?

Anyway I can make it do that?

Edited April 6, 2011 by StuMcBill

[Guest Zeus1022]

A little while ago I tweeted that i'd post here about how I use the excellent Tasker application and my profiles... so here it is. :(

I use Tasker on 2 devices primarily, my phone and my tablet - i'll list them seperately. This list is forever changing - i'm always finding new ways to use Tasker. If you have ANY questions, feel free to post them!

P

Would you be so kind to upload the profile file for at least the tablet...........i wanna learn tasker but also use something to compare mine with someones that KNOWS how to use the app in its fullest ability :)

Thanks :)

[Guest archat68]

My phone speaker stopped working after I inserted a Headphone. I think the headphone socket is defective and the phone thinks that the headphone is always connected and routes the audio through it.

What I want to do is to use tasker so that the phone sounds through phone earpiece even when headphone is connected. Is it possible?