Tasker - An Android Nerd's Dream

Already own Tasker and looking for some profiles for it? Head over to our Tasker Profiles section for some ready-made goodness! Otherwise, continue reading for our full review of this outstanding app.

Tasker is a relatively new application on the Market that promises to give you nearly boundless control over your phone through the use of what I think I will call "touch-and-click" scripting.   There are over 160 built-in actions in the application, which includes everything from lowering screen brightness to using the text-to-speech libraries to have your Evo say something.  You can even build your own home-screen widgets with this tool.

After experimenting with the app for a few days, it is readily obvious that it's potential is enormous.  The various triggers that you can use are:

• launching a specific application
• time/date
• GPS location
• A gesture being performed with the phone
• Certain phone functions, such as receiving a text message, or plugging in the charger. 

Using Tasker, you can define the "context", or triggers, and then define a list of tasks or actions to be performed.

For my first task, I created a script that would verbally read text messages to me when they arrived and flash a pop up box on the screen with the message text.  Yes, I am well aware there are numerous apps out there that already do this, but there is certainly something satisfying when you create it yourself.  The whole task took me all of about 5 minutes to put together.  

Tasker doesn't require any real programming or scripting knowledge, though having some will make it a little easier to understand the user interface.  However, with a little thought, anyone can create tasks with relative ease.  The developer's web site lists numerous examples of what you can do with Tasker.  Here are a few that I found interesting, and easy to do with the app:

• Turn the phone upside down to return to the home screen
• Passcode-lock sensitive applications
• Make automatic recordings of what you say during phone calls to SD card
• Turn on airplane mode to conserve battery at night, but turn it off every 15 minutes to check for SMS/voicemail
• Setup a vacation SMS message, with different messages for different callers
• Launch a music application when headphones are connected

I did find a couple of quirks with the app that I haven't quite figured out yet. For example, I wanted to extend the screen time out whenever I'm in the Gmail application.  Unfortunately, Tasker didn't seem to detect when I launched Gmail.  This seemed specific to Gmail though, as it detected other apps just fine.  The user interface of the app takes a little getting used to, but once you figure it out, it's very straightforward. [UPDATE: As of v1.0.8m, Tasker is now recognizing the Gmail app just fine]

Tasker, by itself, has the ability to replace any number of specialized apps that are on the market.  I highly recommend you check it out for yourself.  As a side note, the app costs around $6.00 US in the Market, but you can also purchase it direct from the developer himself, for around $5.00.  Yeah, even $5 seems like a lot for an app by Android standards, but it is definitely worth it.

Tasker for Android on AppBrain
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