When one talks about device automation on Android, it is difficult to not mention Tasker in that conversation. Tasker is one of the most well-known automation apps on Android, allowing determined users to achieve almost anything that they have set their minds on. Tasker recently underwent a change in ownership, coming into the hands of the very capable João Dias. Since then, Tasker has had a few Beta releases, but the developer is finally rolling out his first public Tasker release.
A few of the notable changes are highlighted below:
With Custom Settings, Tasker can now control and toggle a whole bunch of settings with one simple action. The list of settings on your device varies. We’ve posted multiple tutorials ourselves on tweaking hidden settings values (from the Settings.System, Settings.Global, and Settings.Secure tables). So long as you grant Tasker the WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS permission and you know what Setting you’re trying to toggle, you can automate almost any setting on your device! Finding the setting to toggle within Tasker is very easy, as demonstrated in the video above. From there on, you can change that setting using any combination of triggers and scenarios as you can imagine. Check out the full tutorial on how you can utilize this new feature to change any supported setting from anywhere.
Considering the extent of changes Tasker could make to your system, it required a whole host of permissions to run. This new release of Tasker switches over to Runtime Permissions, making it possible to only grant those permissions that are relevant to your particular use case. Tasker, like every other app, will need to target API level 26 by August so this is one step towards meeting that requirement.
You can now set which location mode you wish to toggle to and from (Settings.Secure.location_mode, one of HIGH_ACCURACY, BATTERY_SAVING, SENSORS_ONLY, or OFF). You can also toggle immersive mode in this new version (Settings.Global.policy_control, one of immersive.navigation, immersive.status, or immersive.all with the option to set up a list of apps that this is applied to.)
Root detection with Magisk is also fixed in this version.
The full changelog for the release is as follows:
Added
Changes
Bugfixes