Tasker is one such app which helps you to automate from setting to SMS. Though this app is highly automated and useful for users, but then is a bit outdated. It was in need of an update. The new version of Tasker has not only improved its performance
The developers were beta testing the v5.0 last month and now the updated version is rolling out on the Play Store. Well, if you’re using this app then I would say update it and enjoy.
The app has a lots of features and sometimes they can be confusing too. And the changelog is also vast, hell lot of changes have been added to the list:
Highlights
- switched to material design icon and themes (Android 5.0+)
- improved presentation and interactions
- added approx 900 material design icons, freely selectable colours
- added 4 themes at Prefs / UI / Theme (Android 5.0+)
- support for (customisable) Quick Settings (Android 7.0+) and App Shortcuts (Android 7.1.1+)
- Video element for scenes with fine control
Incompatibilities
- in %caller variable, changed tag of notification button source to ‘nbutton’
- in %caller variable, nbutton source indicates label, if present
- Notify actions and Tasker status bar icon: may display only in white on some (Android 7.0+?) devices, even if they previously displayed as colour on the same device and ROM
- states Wifi Connected, Ethernet Connected, Mobile Data: if using a VPN simultaneously, the new Active parameter should be set to ‘Any’
Added
- Prefs / UI / Icon Colour From Theme (Android 5.0+)
- action Test Net: mode Auto-Sync
- action Element Web Control: Zoom In/Out accept optional values (Android 5.0+)
- action Net / Test Net, various BT options
- Prefs / UI / List Item Dragging: option Only When Selecting (and is the new default)
- app creation: Auto-Install checkbox
- events Package Updated, New Package: added Package parameter
- event Package Removed, Package Updated, New Package: added selectors
- many extra control labels for talkback users
- action Set Tasker Pref: Lock Code (for UI)
- app icon for material, thanks to Guus Apeldoorn & Fabian Doornbos (Android 5.0+)
- app creation: added Target SDK Version to child config screen (Advanced)
- Prefs / UI / Hardware Acceleration (not in Beginner Mode)
- action Test Element, parameter Max Value (elements: Video, Slider)
- action Element Visibility, parameter Continue Task Immediately (when animation > 0)
- action Show Scene, parameter Display As, option Activity, No Status, No Bar, No Nav (Android 4.4+)
- scene element Video
- action Scenes / Element Video Control
- wherever a simple match is possible,~R at the start indicates a regex match instead, !~R indicates a negative regex match
- states Wifi Connected, Ethernet Connected, Mobile Network: parameter Active (Android 6+)
- action Variable Clear: parameter Local Variables Only if Pattern Matching enabled
- support for multiple simultaneous network types (Android 6+)
- state / VPN Connected (Android 6+)
- event New Notification: Messages parameter for messaging-style notifications (Android 7.0+)
- action Tasker / Show Prefs
- action Tasker / Show Runlog
- action Tasker / Edit Task
- action Tasker / Edit Scene
- Prefs / Action / App Shortcuts (Android 7.1.1+)
- action Tasker / Set App Shortcuts, for Tasker or apps created by Tasker (Android 7.1.1+)
- Prefs / Action / Quick Settings (Android 7.1+)
- action Tasker / Setup Quick Setting, (Android 7.1+)
- action Take Screenshot (Android 5.0+)
- action Set Alarm: parameters Ringtone and Vibrate (Android 4.4+)
- action Show Alarms (Android 4.4+)
- action Cancel Alarm (Android 6.0+)
- Menu / More / Android Settings / Write Settings (Android 6.0+)
- Menu / More / Android Settings / Draw Over Other Apps (Android 6.0+)
- launcher shortcuts: now support all icon types
- launcher widgets: don’t show ‘no image’ option in icon select, it’s required
- action Test File: test file existence
- scene element Switch
- action Settings / Notification Listener Settings (Android 5.1+)
- action Settings / Print Settings (Android 4.4+)
- scene element long-click event: show visible indication when event triggered (elements where previsouly a short click was indicated)
- scene element slider: background tab
- round Tasker launcher icons (Android 7.1.1+)
- Prefs / Monitor: option Show Notification Icon
- task edit screen: menu item Action Numbers
- Profile, Task, Scene, Var tabs can be long-clicked for options
- manifest permission WRITE_CALL_LOG: used for Call Log action, Android previously granted it without needing declaration
- manifest permission READ_CALL_LOG: used for monitoring call log changes e.g. event Missed Call, Android previously granted it without needing declaration
Bugfixes
- S7, maybe some other 7+ devices: some locale-based formats were being set incorrectly (Android 7.0+)
- app selection list: some entries had no label
- action Input / Back Button: was going Home instead
- app creation: action Wifi Tether: on some devices required WRITE_SETTINGS permission
- action JavaScript(let): function selector showed wrong type for 3rd parameter of elem Visibility
- file actions: standard file extensions were being automatically added to target name in some circumstances
- action Airplane Mode: spurious error when used with root (API 5.0+)
Bugfixes (cont)
- crash on exit from scene editor if referenced task was only on SD not configured data
- app creation: text elements in layout scenes with font specified, font wasn’t being exported
- lock/unlock project,profile,task: display wasn’t updating other implicitly-locked tasks, profiles, scenes etc
- action SQL Query: in Raw mode, some insert statements weren’t opening the DB writeable
- action Array Set: variables in Splitter parameter weren’t being replaced
- calling settings directly, lock code wasn’t being asked for even when set
- app creation: Start System Timer wasn’t including the needed permission
- event Package Removed: was triggering also on update
- app creation: wasn’t exporting accessibility service for several actions needing it
- adapt (new) shortcut icons to screen density when loading
- switching to variable tab was causing data change to be registered
- actions Set Default Ringtone, Play Ringtone: in action edit screen selection wasn’t working correctly
- prefs screen wasn’t hiding beginner options in beginner mode
- was getting haptic feedback on profile list irrespective of pref setting
- talkback: prevent double announcement of app name on launch
- don’t display Move To Top action mode menu option if item is already at top
- app creation: don’t cancel when pressing back after successful generation
Changes
- apply v2 apk signing to Tasker and AppFactory apks
- app creation: apply v2 apk signing to kid apps (Android 8.0+)
- dragging over projects gives haptic feedback if enabled
- action Silent Mode: changed name to Vibrate Mode (Android 6.0+)
- various content display tweaks
- default Prefs / UI / List Item Drag Margin to Left, Invisible
- improved drag handling, drag-and-scroll now variable speed
- all event specifying an app: multiple apps can be specified, only one must match
- changed handling for lists in action and scene elements (e.g. action Menu) to match other lists in UI, including multi-select
- app selection list: improved label content
- action Show Scene, parameter Display As, changed ‘Full Display’ to ‘No Status’
- app creation: support larger projects (still depends on project contents to some extent)
- action Java Function: in tasks executed by non-overlay scene element events, CONTEXT object is the associated activity
- task edit: only show an icon for action type if it’s a setting action
- scenes: try to always use theme that best matches device default, also when editing
- action Mobile Data: available again for TEKXodus ROMs
- group builtin icons by Material, Holo and Misc, with subgroups for Material and Holo
- various lists were respecting system setting instead of Tasker setting
- support detection of Magisk package for enabling root support
- scene element EditText: event Text Change: changes are buffered, event may now contain several accumulated changes at once
- Run Shell: changed LD_LIBRARY_PATH to /vendor/lib*:/system/lib*
- changed max aspect ration to 2.1 to support wider screens like S8 without letterboxing (also for kid apps)
- action Scan Card, name changed to Scan Media
- use system cache dir instead of private for most tmp files
- new profile,task etc: popup anchors to top tab instead of + button
- monitor notification icon: option to reset to default
- new high-density notification bar icon
- .icn dir: support for .jpg and .jpeg extensions
- action Display / Test Display: Resolution -> Available Resolution
- HTML info screens: conform to theme colours
- File Select dialog: back button means accept
- Variable Split, Array Set: param splitter: accept newlines
- tweaked widget layout
- action Wait: handle singular/plural in description
- moved Tasker/log.txt to Tasker/log/tasker.txt, logs in old location auto-deleted
- lots of historical references to ‘SD Card’ in help texts/userguide now refer to ‘internal storage’ or similar
- task edit screen: Margins toggle
- actions JavaScript(let): Continue On Error parameter
- colour picker dialog: text entry field, rearranged a little, added landscape layout
- action Set Wallpaper, parameter Continue On Error
- action Display / Test Display: Hardware Resolution (i.e. including nav bar)
- missing talkback labels for some UI elements
- task/profile/scene multi-select option: Move To Project
- selecting event/state/action: button to toggle list view
- monitor notification action buttons disabled by default (too many accidental presses on Disable)
Removed
- action Wifi Tether is no longer possible without root on Android 7. Root users can install the plugin Nougat Tasker Tethering Toggle from Play Store (and then select it instead of the Wifi Tether action).
- action Set Tasker Pref cannot be called from external app
- scene element Image, parameter Click Colour: was never implemented…
There have been many changes and new icons have been added to make it easy to use for the users.The developer has added themes as well. There are hardly any alternatives for Tasker with such features. It is a Paid app costing just $3.
You can download the app here.