This app was mentioned in 45 comments, with an average of 1.78 upvotes
Great app! It sounds like a streamlined version of others, such as the Taker plugin AutoLocation, which talk a big game when it comes to context-based events. I'm excited to see what fences can do now that they're so accessible.
Unfortunately, I don't think I'm dreaming big enough. Most of the scenarios that seem promising - opening music players and fitness trackers on a run, opening maps when driving - are most useful before I start the activity. That's when I'm standing still and have time to set them up, not in the middle of traffic. The one exception is switching me to an Android Auto-style launcher when I'm driving, but even then, connecting to the car's Bluetooth is less prone to false positives.
What use cases have you come up with as the app's developer?
Get AutoLocation and set up a profile that triggers when cycling and pops up a notification with this picture
>Is there any plug-ins that do anything similar?
Plugin https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joaomgcd.autolocation&hl=en_GB
Pros and cons https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/tasker/w02oHNPvumk
> Disclaimer: I just screw around with Tasker and am not anything impressive. So there might be some really easy way to make this work I'm missing.
I'd say this is indeed the easy way, and is indeed an impressive solution from a logistical standpoint :)
Use a Wifi Disconnected Profile to initiate the sequence, and then create a GeoFence with <strong>AutoLocation</strong> so that once inside the "almost home" zone, the text message gets sent. I would likely recommend two Profiles, whereby the Wifi Disconnect controls the status of the text message Profile:
PROFILE: "Leaving Work" State > Wifi Connected: <Work SSID>
ENTER TASK: A1. Profile Status: "Almost Home" Status: off
EXIT TASK: A1. Profile Status: "Almost Home" Status: on
and then the second Profile...
PROFILE: "Almost Home" State > AutoLocation: <GeoFence area near home>
TASK: A1. Send Text: <gf's number> Msg: <your message>
A2. Profile Status: "Almost Home" Status: off
And that should do it! As you can see /u/Sir_loin18 the second Profile turns itself off after the text message is sent, and won't get turned back on until you've once again left work on another day or at another time.
(Note: As an alternate option to using Wifi and/or AutoLocation, you could use a "Cell Near" State in one or both Profiles even - to detect when you're near to work or home based on a nearby cell tower in each location.)
Create a new profile State-->Phone-->Cell Near, you can scan and select nearby cell towers you want, after just go back and as task add wifi off. Just to say though, profiles which depend on cell towers are not so reliable unless you live in an area with few towers only. You can try to use autolocation plugin and it's geofence option.
Actually, I think this could be done (on Android) with Tasker and AutoLocation (a plug-in for Tasker).
This would not be the simplest thing to set up... but at least it would require zero actual programming.
I dont know how one would do it on iOS... I have no knowledge of that platform.
Not sure what device you have or which script you tried but you could explore AutoLocation Activities and Send Intent.
> I hope this is allowed
It is encouraged in fact :)
Regarding your Task, what you are looking for is a Profile to trigger it based on location, and also variables passed into the Task so that the Task knows where the device is at.
For this I would recommend the <strong>AutoLocation</strong> plugin. You can create GeoFences and various areas based on device location.
The variable %TIMES
contains the absolute time in seconds. So if you log that, or convert it with "Variable Convert" - you can get various versions of the day/date/time.
For example if you use the "Long Datetime" convert option you'll get a full date output of Monday, May 18, 2018 6:05 PM
Regarding the triggers - I would say to use the NFC for both. Since your phone can lose cell service just from being in some area at work and the signal drops out. You wouldn't want it logging it in that case.
Another option would be to use a plugin like <strong>AutoLocation</strong> to setup a "GeoFence" area. A bit more reliable option. In fact you could use the GeoFence for both time logs.
Some alternatives to the "GPS" Profile Context would be to use a "Wifi Connected" context for your work's Wifi if it has one and you connect to it?
Or even if you don't connect to it you can use the "Wifi Near" Profile Context and it will detect any network(s) you specify.
Another alternative is to use the <strong>AutoLocation</strong> plugin to setup a GeoFence area around your work. Far more reliable and automatic than trying to do it with Tasker's built-in location functions.
You can use the plugin <strong>AutoLocation</strong> to setup location based Profiles, including those that use "Geo-fences" and radius area's.
Also as oothers have mentioned there's also Tasker's "Wifi Near" Profile Context, which some people have good luck with, others not so much. Keep in mind on newer versions of Android you'll need to have "Location" enabled on your device in order to use "Wifi Near".
And when using "Wifi Near" you can specify multiple networks/SSID's by putting a slash between them, so you'd just input your 3 SSID's for A/B/C and link the Profile to a Task that does what you want :)
EDIT: The Cell Near Context is also a viable option, similar to Wifi Near but based on certain cell towers / signals being with range.
Some people swear by AutoLocation with its geofences, it's likely to be a bit more accurate than Tasker's built-in geofences because AutoLocation uses fused location, and I think Tasker just uses Net or GPS separately rather than fusing. You'd need to have Wifi enabled to take advantage of AutoLocation, but you might have that enabled anyway.
I use AutoLocation for location based profiles. You can create custom "geofences" around specific areas and then use Tasker state contexts to react when entering or exiting.
You may look at the Autolocation plugins...and especially the Geofence Monitor function....a great video in google play is explaining it all:
link me: autolocation
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joaomgcd.autolocation
Very welcome!
And for icing on the cake regarding Location abilities, you should looking into the plugin AutoLocation for advanced/streamlined "geo-fencing" and location handling.
A roundabout way of doing it would be to have a separate profile with AutoLocation's "Location" context to catch any successful location updates. See this thread for more info.
You could have the AutoLocation profile set a variable—perhaps a time-based one—as soon as a new location is found, and in your other task check for this variable after a minute has passed.
Take a look at the (paid) plugin AutoLocation. Using it, you can define geofences (think of it as an area) and let Tasker do it's thing when entering or leaving one. It can also react when it detects you moving via car, although I haven't used that profile yet.
I had issues with tasks not running because my location wasn't being updated often enough. I added Auto Location to Tasker, and now the location triggers the second I enter the area. You can also set a radius as large or as small as you want for your locations. I have some that will trigger when I'm almost home, and then others are a smaller radius and won't trigger until I'm in my driveway.
the location data (lon/lat) always change even if you move 1 feet forward ⏩ ? at witch time you want to get update when your away from home ???? you can trigger your macro every 5-10 minutes when your away... or you can also extract your lon/lat coordinate every X min timer and store lon/lat coordinate into variable and next 5-10min trigger check-up update and check again you current location if your new lon/lat dont change a lot then probably your are in same place, friend house, restaurant,... if the values change with much difference then you are on your way and move then send news sms update information.
you can use "force location update" or also using plugins like "auto location" update from joaomgcd.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joaomgcd.autolocation
I think with the <strong>AutoLocation</strong> plugin you can setup an Event or State for both entering and exiting a geographic area/location :)
Checkout the AutoLocation plugin or ActivityTask also the new Significant Motion event may be worth a try.
Might also be a good idea to explain a high level of what you are trying to achieve.
For example, if you are trying to calculate the distance between two coordinates, you could explore AutoLocation and/or one of the Google Maps APIs.
Have you tried AutoLocation with it's Geofencing Profile Contexts? They are very useful and I haven't noticed any battery drain.
Save your changes and exit out of Tasker and see if it works.
I also recommend a "Beep" action, or "Vibrate" action - if there screen could be off when you're testing it.
As was also mentioned - there is a certain time interval that Tasker scans for location. I would recommend using <strong>AutoLocation</strong> to get better triggering accuracy and options.
There's a paid plugin for Tasker called AutoLocation that makes it so easy to do stuff like this.
AutoLocation | Info | Points of Interest takes latlong, search criteria, and tells you what's nearby within a specified radius.
You could try the AutoLocation app. It uses geofences but no way of telling how accurate it will be in your place, might be worth a try though.
You should try AutoLocation. It let's you use geofences, locations and activities as triggers or to use it'd information within a task.
There are plugins (e.g. AutoLocation, Auto Activity) that can detect that for you (especially if you don't have a Moto phone).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joaomgcd.autolocation&hl=en
It isn't free but it is far more capable than basic Tasker location. If nothing else watch the video on the Play Store page.
As a general Tasker programming pattern, create a 1st profile that sets or clears a state variable FOOBAR based upon some conditions then create a 2nd profile for the event "variable FOOBAR was set to some value".
If anyone happens to stumble on this post with the same issue, this is how I've sorted out my setup. I may tweak it a bit forther but for not it seems to be working fine. Details below if anyone is curious, or just download the setup here. I've removed a few things for privacy, so you'll need to reconfigure your wifi, locations, etc.
AutoLocation Fences:
As far as I'm aware Tasker's location states will not work, as it can not differentiate between in and out of a radius, just in. You will need use AutoLocation to set up your geofences. I'm using 2 fences at different radiuses to tell Tasker if I am leaving my small town (exit 2km from home) or on my way back home (enter 5km from home) but you also could just set up an in or with one fence.
Location Monitoring:
AutoLocation needs to be enabled in order for it to accurately track your location. I'm using Bluetooth to determine if I'm in my car, then enable enable AutoLocation monitoring and disable on Bluetooth disconnection via an exit task.
Ecobee Status Tasks:
These trigger on IFTTT webhook through Tasker's HTTP post function, then audibly alert me that there has been a status change to my thermostat. One turns it to Away Mode when I leave, one turns it to Resume Mode when I return. Not sure if this is necessary but they then wait 30 seconds to ensure I'm well past the geofence line, then change a variable to ensure each profile only runs a single time
Profile Single Instance:
Again not sure if necessary, but at one point I was having an issue with my tasks being triggered several times in quick succession. I assume it was straddling the line between the two fences and getting confused. I've set up a variable (%LocationAway) that my Ecobee Away and Resume tasks set (0 or 1 for away or resume respectively), then used the opposite variables in the triggers for each status task, so each one cannot fire unless the other has. See the example below.
Profiles:
The triggers are: the Autolocation geofence, the %LocationAway variable, and a "not connected to home wifi" state to it won't start running until I leave my driveway.
you may want to experiment with AutoLocation, dont know if it'll be any better
AutoLocation plug-in
If you want to have it triggered automatically, i.e. you need to create a profile, you could try:
If one of them is triggered (by motion) you can set the %UIMODE to car — see Tasker Variables — which you can evaluate later on in your task.
Due to the nature of Events they only have one or more Enter Task(s), in contrary to a State that can have an Enter and an Exit Task (see also Tasker UG for Events and States). You will encounter the problem with stopping during or ending your drive. I have solved it with a trigger (profile) for unplugging power (ignition).
For actions 4-6 there are a lot of examples here in the sub.
You should checkout the AutoLocation plugin
> a little ambitious
Yeah, a little...
Well, I can think of two ways that you might accomplish this. One involves a Raspberry Pi, and the other involves Tasker (Android phones only).
This setup is centered around pyOBD. Connect the Raspberry Pi to your car's OBD-II port. Power the Pi off of the vehicle's accessory bus (bonus points if you use a fuse tap and a voltage regulator instead of just plugging in a cigarette lighter adapter). Write a Python script for the Pi that runs continuously. It should import the obd_io
module from pyOBD and simply monitor the vehicle speed data from the OBD interface. When the car is on, the Pi powers up and runs the script automatically. When the speed goes from positive to zero, the script knows that the car has stopped. Alternatively, if your car supports it, you may find it better to monitor when the automatic transmission is shifted into Park.
How you want to be reminded is up to you. You could just connect the Pi to your vehicle's audio system and play a sound. You could give the Pi its own LTE modem and have it make a request to IFTTT's Webhooks module; with the IFTTT app installed on your phone, make IFTTT react to the trigger by pushing a notification to your phone. You could also use a complex Bluetooth protocol to send a message from the Pi to your phone; you would still have to write an app for your phone to handle it.
If you go this far, you may as well make the Pi turn your headlights off automatically, too.
Your car must have some sort of Bluetooth that automatically connects to your phone when you start it. Create a Tasker profile that triggers every two minutes but only while the car's Bluetooth is connected. Within the task, monitor the phone's GPS location in a loop. For each location ping, using the Haversine distance formula, calculate the distance from the previous ping. Divide by the elapsed time to get the speed. When the speed drops below a certain threshold that you'll determine by trial and error, use Tasker's built-in functions to pop a notification up. Keep the loop going for just under two minutes; after two minutes, the profile gets triggered again unless your car's Bluetooth is no longer connected.
Alternatively, instead of writing your own speed-detecting logic, you could use the AutoLocation plugin for Tasker. I haven't used it myself, though, so I don't know how to use it.
Edit: deleted extraneous word
It was already said by /u/nylyst but AutoLocation is extremely reliable for me.
Get the AutoLocation plugin https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joaomgcd.autolocation and watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyAscel5mT0
Try the AutoLocation plugin :)