Tasker Is the Killer Android App

February 18, 2015

As far as I’m concerned, the killer app for Android, is Tasker. I don’t think there’s anything like it for iOS. Tasker allows you to associate various events with actions(sort of like IFTTT). So if I’m at work, tasker sets my phone to vibrate. “At Work” is defined as: Wifi is associated with the KeyArt access point(our AP at work). Here are some example of events:

• wifi related - a certain access point
• bluetooth related - connected to a certain device
• time related - within a time range
• GPS related - within a radius of certain coordinates

…and example actions:

• start an app
• stop an app
• adjust volume

So here’s a more complicated and incredibly useful example. When I’m leaving work, I automatically start Waze and start navigating home. “Leaving Work” is defined like this:

• If I’m connected to my car bluetooth and…
• I’m within 500 ft of my work and…
• It’s between 4 pm and 9 pm in the evening

Starting Waze and automatically navigating home is just an Android intent and Tasker can send those as actions.

Now that I’ve automated much of the routine interaction with my phone it would be hard to go back.