Tasker

Review by eFreeware

Most phones are perfectly capable of changing their own settings, and yet they sit there waiting for you to do it. The volume stays loud when you get home, the display stays bright long after dark, and the same small chores get repeated every day. Tasker is built around the idea that the device should handle those things itself.

It comes from developer joaomgcd and has been in the Tools category on Google Play since July 2010, with over a million installs and a 4.0 average from more than 56,000 ratings. It costs $4.49 as a one-time payment, carries no ads and offers no in-app purchases. The developer describes it as total automation, from settings to SMS, and the scope of what it covers is the reason it has stayed relevant for so long.

Contexts and tasks, the core idea

The basic model is simple to state and open-ended in practice. You define a context, which is a situation the phone can recognize, and attach a task, which is something the phone should then do. The developer lists more than 130 states and events you can use as contexts, including the app currently in the foreground, the time of day, your location, the Wi-Fi network you are connected to, incoming calls or messages, and the song that is playing.

On the other side of that pairing sit more than 350 actions. These cover sending messages, posting notifications, adjusting system settings such as Wi-Fi tethering, dark mode and always-on display, changing any volume level, managing Do Not Disturb, opening apps, moving files, controlling music playback and reading your location. The developer's pitch is that if you can think of something, Tasker can probably do it, and the breadth of the action list is what gives that claim any weight.

What appeals to me here is the combination rather than any single feature. A context on its own is just a trigger, and an action on its own is just a shortcut. Putting them together is where the flexibility lives, because the same action can behave differently depending on which context fired it.

Triggers, backups and building your own apps

Not everything has to be automatic. Tasks can be started by hand through launcher shortcuts, quick settings tiles, widgets, a long press on the volume buttons, the media buttons on Bluetooth headsets or headphones, the Bixby button, the navigation bar and notifications. That matters for the automations you only want occasionally, where a rule waiting in the background would be the wrong tool.

File backups are another piece of the picture. If you set it up, Tasker can copy your files to a chosen folder on the device, to an SD card, to a USB key or to Google Drive, which the developer frames as a way to keep your files safe if the phone is lost. The app can also be told to check a website for updated APKs, download them and start the installation.

Two features extend the app beyond your own phone. Scenes let you design a custom interface for showing information or launching tasks, and the Tasker App Factory lets you turn your work into standalone apps you can share or sell. Adding Join, a separate app from the same developer, allows tasks to be triggered from another Android device or a computer.

There is also a developer-facing side. Third-party apps can expose their own actions, events and states to Tasker, and the HTTP Request and HTTP Auth actions let you call most web APIs directly. The most recent update continues in that direction, mentioning Shizuku support for root-level power without root, Java code actions with access to native APIs, offline sunrise and sunset triggers, richer notifications and extra standalone trigger apps.

What it asks of you

The price is a one-time $4.49, and the developer offers a seven-day trial before you commit. There are no ads and no in-app purchases to weigh, so the cost question is settled once. What the app asks for instead is your time and a willingness to think in terms of triggers and consequences.

Root is not required for most of what Tasker does, which the developer emphasizes. A few actions are the exception: killing an app and toggling mobile data on some devices need root access, because of Android security policies that cannot be worked around. If those two actions are central to your plans, that limit is worth knowing before you buy.

Two permissions are worth understanding because they explain how certain features work. The app uses the BIND_DEVICE_ADMIN permission to provide its system lock function, and it uses an accessibility service for things like closing the notification tray and checking which app is currently open. These are the mechanisms behind features rather than extras you can switch off and keep the same behavior.

How I would approach it

The sensible way in is to start with one annoyance and automate only that. Pick a context you already understand, such as the Wi-Fi network at home or a time of day, and give it a single action with a visible result. That keeps the cause and effect obvious while you learn how the pieces fit together.

From there, build outward. The developer's own example uses are a reasonable reference point for what is possible, and the combination of contexts and actions is where the app rewards experimentation. Once a few automations are running, the manual triggers become more useful, because you can reach for a widget or a quick settings tile instead of building a rule for something that happens once a week.

Backups are the one thing I would set up early rather than late. An automation that quietly copies files to a folder, an SD card, a USB key or Google Drive is easy to configure and gives you something concrete in return. If you plan to share what you build, the App Factory route is there, but it makes sense after you have a task worth packaging.

Where the appeal runs out

Tasker is not a product that does anything for you on first launch. It hands you a large set of contexts and an even larger set of actions and expects you to assemble them. The app is built for people who want to assemble their own automations from individual conditions and actions rather than pick from a short list of ready-made ones.

The root-dependent actions are a genuine constraint, not a technicality, and they affect specific functions rather than the app as a whole. The accessibility service and device admin permission are likewise part of how certain features operate, which is a reasonable thing to weigh if you prefer to keep those mechanisms unused on your phone.

The rating tells a similar story. A 4.0 average across more than 56,000 ratings suggests a tool that satisfies a great many people without being effortless for everyone, which fits an app whose value depends on how much you put into it.

A tool for people who like building things

Tasker is worth the $4.49 if you enjoy the process of making your phone behave the way you want, and if you are comfortable spending an evening working out why a task did not fire. The seven-day trial exists precisely so you can find out whether that describes you before paying.

The people who will get the most from it are tinkerers, developers and anyone who has ever wanted to call a web API from a phone automation. The plugin support, the HTTP actions, the Java code additions and the App Factory all point in that direction. If your needs are simpler, a single-purpose automation app will get you there with far less effort.

What keeps Tasker interesting after all this time is that it does not decide what your automations should be. It gives you the contexts and the actions, and the rest is yours to assemble. That is a demanding bargain, and for the right person it is a good one.

What's new in version 6.6.20

Release Video: https://bit.ly/tasker6_6_video Comment/More: https://bit.ly/tasker6_6_comment - Shizuku: Root power without root! Logcat is back! - Java Code: Future Proofed Tasker: Write full Java Code actions with access to native APIs with built-in AI assistant! - Offline Sunrise/Sunset: Automate with the sun! - Enhanced Notifications: Status bar chips & group control! - Extra Triggers: Standalone apps for Bixby, Home & more!