

If you need to automate something on your Android phone, you can be confident Tasker can handle it. While the app has always been good with updates, the new management, aka joaomgcd of AutoApps fame, has pushed some significant new functionality over the past year. Last month, the Tasker v5.9 beta added an interesting new feature — the ability to read the phone's Logcat and react to events, opening up a whole new category of reactive use-cases for your tasks. Today, the stable build of v5.9 was pushed to the Play Store with Logcat events and a whole bunch of other features.





While Logcat event reading is the headline feature, there's some other interesting new functionality too — like a more reliable Get Location action that lets you specify parameters like minimum location accuracy, and the ability to disable the devices camera across the system with a new camera action.

Dramatically declaring this update "the game changer", João has provided a pretty voluminous changelog.



Added Added Logcat Entry event which allows you to react to any logcat on your Android system, opening up a whole new world of event/state possibilities in Tasker! Demo here.

event which allows you to react to any logcat on your Android system, opening up a whole new world of event/state possibilities in Tasker! Demo here. Added Shortcut action which allows you to open an Android shortcut from Tasker. Demo here.

action which allows you to open an Android shortcut from Tasker. Demo here. Media Button state now works on Android 8+ without the need to grab media buttons! Demo here.

state now works on Android 8+ without the need to grab media buttons! Demo here. Added Get Location v2 action: get your current location in a much more accurate and fast way than the old Get Location . Has options to restrict the kind of location you want opening up a whole lot of possibilities! For example, you can make sure that the gotten location has at least a 10 meter accuracy! Demo here.

action: get your current location in a much more accurate and fast way than the old . Has options to restrict the kind of location you want opening up a whole lot of possibilities! For example, you can make sure that the gotten location has at least a 10 meter accuracy! Demo here. Added Pick Location action: pick your location from a map and get the coordinates back in your task. Demo here.

action: pick your location from a map and get the coordinates back in your task. Demo here. Added Set Assistant action: set your phone's assistant (Google, AutoVoice, Tasker, etc). Demo here.

action: set your phone's assistant (Google, AutoVoice, Tasker, etc). Demo here. Added Get Next Alarm action: get details about the next alarm that is set on your phone. Demo here.

action: get details about the next alarm that is set on your phone. Demo here. Added Camera action: enable or disable the camera for all apps on your phone. Demo here.

action: enable or disable the camera for all apps on your phone. Demo here. Added Significant Motion event: triggers when its likely that user is changing location (walking, driving, etc)

event: triggers when its likely that user is changing location (walking, driving, etc) Added Tasker Functions action: a place for niche/small little Tasker functionalities that do not warrant a whole standalone action.

action: a place for niche/small little Tasker functionalities that do not warrant a whole standalone action. Allow all App related actions to use the app name instead of just the package name. Demo here.

to use the app name instead of just the package name. Demo here. Added ability to long click a variable in the Variable Select List to show its value. Demo here.

to show its value. Demo here. Added Alarm Changed event that triggers whenever an alarm changes on your device.

event that triggers whenever an alarm changes on your device. Allow Launch App to use variables to launch a specific activity with the format packageName/activityClass

to use variables to launch a specific activity with the format packageName/activityClass Added option In Text Received event to filter by SIM

event to filter by SIM Made Authentication Dialog > Biometric be able to be used with Iris and Face sensors (Android 10+)

be able to be used with and (Android 10+) Added Confirmation Required and Device Credentials Allowed options to Authentication Dialog (Android 10+)

and options to Authentication Dialog (Android 10+) Added option Use Motion Detection to Set Tasker Pref action

to action Added %new_state variable to the output of the Dark Mode , Camera and NFC actions

variable to the output of the , and actions Added option to select the Mode of Base64 Decoding in the Variable Convert action

of in the action Added Pixel 4 specific Custom Setting preferences that you can use with the Custom Setting action, event or state.

action, event or state. Show active profiles in the notification even if it's minimized

Made Tasker able to read and monitor the clipboard in the background on Android 10+

Added reminder that Pixel users can squeeze their phones to call Tasker as an assistant

Added ability to specify a directory as the output for a HTTP Request action so that the file name is automatically recognized and set when downloaded

action so that the file name is automatically recognized and set when downloaded Added %http_file_output variable as output in the HTTP Request action so that you can act on the downloaded file more easily when the file name is automatically found by Tasker

variable as output in the action so that you can act on the downloaded file more easily when the file name is automatically found by Tasker Added Assistant Settings in Tasker > Menu > More > Android Settings

Added notification when user attempts to clear all variables the "old way" warning user that it doesn't work that way anymore

When user sets up Secondary App event on Samsung devices ask if user wants to set the double-tap gesture to open Tasker instead of the camera. Changes Changed the way the clipboard is gotten in the background on Android 10. Now requires WRITE_SECURE_SETTING permission

permission Restore Settings is now disabled by default when creating a new profile

Made Mobile Data action work with Secure Settings on non-rooted devices, warning the user that it may not work on all devices

action work with Secure Settings on non-rooted devices, warning the user that it may not work on all devices Added option Clear All Variables in action Variable Clear . Only if that option is selected will all user variables be cleared.

in action . Only if that option is selected will all user variables be cleared. Redirect to english web page if help in other language is not available

Made Tasker always show up as an assistant choice and then, when used as an assistant, give user instructions on how to use

Changed Auto theme to Black (instead of dark) when system ui Dark Mode is enabled

Changed illegible error message when importing stuff from Taskernet that needs a newer version of Tasker. Now a nicer to read message appears.

Allow scenes to be shown with any vertical or horizontal offset if user enters value manually

Change parameter label from "App" to "Package/App Name" where actions have app parameters that can be set via the app name

Changed some messages that show up as toasts into dialogs so that people that block Tasker notifications still see them.

Changed Cell Near history to 24 hours instead of 6.

Made some events trigger faster with less use of resources Bugfixes Fixed long-standing bug (from back when I wasn't the developer) that would sometimes hang a task if another task had a wait action running

Fixed long-standing bug (from back when I wasn't the developer) where if you monitored the value of %LIGHT and the light level sank to 0, %LIGHT would never actually be 0 but would remain in the value previous to 0.

Fixed File Copy action when "From" is an URI instead of a file

Fixed Input Method Select action on Android 10

Made Load Last App action available for everyone again! :)

action available for everyone again! :) Made %LAPP variable available again

variable available again Made Cell Near condition work more reliably

Made NFC action work more reliably

Fixed shortcuts using app icons which were appearing weird before

Fixed asking for draw over other apps permission when necessary

Fixed allowing phone to go to sleep when dark mode is enabled while Android Auto is running

Fixed crash sometimes when destroying a scene with a map element

Fixed bug where if you imported a profile sometimes another disabled profile would be enabled

Ask for notification access permission when enabling the Use Notification If Available option in the Media Control action

Make HTTP Request action request file permissions because it's possible to write the output to a file

Fixed HTTP Request action when downloading a file to a folder that doesn't exist. Now creates needed folders automatically.

Made Secure Setting actions (like NFC) not have the settings icon, because it won't revert automatically when being set in an entry task

Fixed using Authentication Dialog action with the App context in some situations

Fixed bug where importing a project with disabled profiles would sometimes enable them.

Correctly ask for Do Not Disturb changing permissions when adding the Ringer Volume action

Fixed not being able to use 2 variables in Lat,Long field in the Open Map action

Fixed Google Maps crash in kid apps

Fix crash when requesting permission on Android 5

Fixed some smaller crashes App Factory Fix not being able to: use app icons, do non secure http requests and use the Pick location dialog for exported App Factory apps

Made app factory apps always have the SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission if target API is 29 or above

Madd app factory apps have location permissions if they use maps in scenes or the pick location dialog

You can update your Tasker installaton from the Play Store, or grab the latest installer from APKMirror.