Android

Not today, Satan.

It's coming for you... I've already bought it and played it all the way through on pc, switch, and android

Some examples of using Tasker:

• When a specific contact sends a text message, it alerts me using TTS so I can be aware they are trying to reach me. I have an older family member she lives closer to, so having an alert from her is important if anything should happen forbid it does. When I plug my phone in to charge, it auto silences the phone and keeps it silenced until I unplug it, built into the same task, if monitors for phone calls from my contact and a few others and overrides it.

When a specific phone contact or contact calls, it raises the volumes to max. This is useful if you went to an appointment, set your phone on silent or vibrate but forgot to reset it. After the call has been completed, it returns the phone to the original volume you set.

• When I scan a NFC Tag, i have it send a webhook to my August lock to unlock it. As an apartment dweller, if I go down to the car to unload groceries, the door by default auto locks. This means I have to pull the phone out, unlock it, open the August App, and then tell it to unlock the door and sometimes use the biometric to do so. Having the NFC tag do this means I can put it in my wallet and when I put my phone in the same pocket where the wallet it is, it triggers the door.

• When connected to my computer only, it keeps the screen on all the time.

• When I launch certain apps, it keeps the screen on until the app is closed. Very useful when you are at the grocery store working within a strict budget and want to see how much you have put in to the cart!

• I have a widget on my screen which toggles my Private DNS on/off. This allows me to disable the adblock dns I use if I encounter a public wifi which insists I disable it. (I usually stay away from those, and use my mobile data, but sometimes it's unavoidable when there is so much interference your 5G goes to NONE and you have to be there for a while.)

• Likewise, I have a widget which toggles my Tailscale connection on/off which comes in handy as well. Again, if the Wifi spot rejects custom DNS's and I'm in the scenario above.

• If you have a Google Account (Sadly, this is the only way). You can view the list of profiles/tasks which other people have built. It's a growing list. https://taskernet.com/shares/

• Using third party software such as Wake on LAN, when I come home and connect to my WiFi, it wakes my computer. (Or really any condition I set to trigger it).

I will say that the dev is very responsive and active in releasing updates and new features.

With that said, it has a slight learning curve which he(the developer) is working on to help simplify things and modernize it more. Since taking over the project from the previous owner, it's really grown.

I admit though, I used to have a lot more tasks and profiles, but it seems that Android is starting to bake those functions in so it's not as used on my end. But don't let it it sway you. Your imagination is the only limit with what you can do with Tasker.

Generally, for less than a cup of coffee, it's worth the purchase price. :)

• When my house guests text "#wifi" to me, they get an auto reply with the WiFi password.

• NFC tag stuck to my medication pouch. When I boop my phone to it (or tap a shortcut on homescreen), I can select what medication I have taken. The medication and the time gets added to the bottom of a Google sheets spreadsheet, that I, or someone supporting me can check to get an overview of how frequently I've been taking medication (especially useful for spotting high pain chunks of time due to more frequent usage of PRN pain meds).

• Another aspect of the medication tracking above is that it also can tell me the last time I took medication. For example, if I take ADHD meds at 12pm, then my next dose would be 4pm. If I tap the shortcut at 3pm, it'll tell me I last took meds at 12pm and I'm next due at 4pm. Alarms tend to either startle me or not be noticed, but when I had smart lights and a notification light on my phone, I could make a colour gradient where "you have just taken meds" = red and "you are due to take meds" = blue, and as time progresses, the colour slowly becomes more blue. This works well for me, because I like visual reminders

I am not aware of any advantage, but my family and friends are using either Threema, Signal or Telegram. So I use all three of them.

Why Threema?

Currently limited to groups chats of 256 participants and group calls of 16 participants

For privacy, freedom, and control, iOS is out. As with Telegram, I advise staying away from the Google variant and highly recommend the Threema Libre implementation for Android. Licenses are not compatible across variants, so stick with the Threema Shop!

• Open source full E2EE (end-to-end encryption) platform with regular security audits
• Mobile clients can be linked to Threema Desktop/Web
• Source code available for Android, iOS, Desktop, and Web
• Threema Libre implementation for Android
  • Liberated from Google Services, uses Threema Push for instant delivery
  • Reproducible builds
  • Available via F-Droid repository
• Simplified (normal human-understandable) Changelog
• Multiple ways to purchase through Threema Shop
  • With or without Email Address
  • Cash, Bitcoin, Mastercard, Visa, or bank transfer - Can leave every non-payment field blank!
  • 4.99 CHF, EUR, or USD per license
  • Pay anonymously with cash (rounded nearest 10, buy in multiples of 2)

The largest criticism levied against Threema:

• 2023010? - Accusation - Three Lessons from Threema - Analysis of a Secure Messenger
• 20230109 - Rebuttal - Statement on ETH Findings
• 20230110 - Coverage - Messenger billed as better than Signal is riddled with vulnerabilities

"While some of the findings presented in the paper may be interesting from a theoretical standpoint, none of them ever had any considerable real-world impact," the post stated. "Most assume extensive and unrealistic prerequisites that would have far greater consequences than the respective finding itself."

Its business model and not requiring a phone number

Titanium has been abandoned for years. Swift backup is what I switched to, or DataBackup on GitHub if you want a free option.

Titanium Backup hasn't been updated in five years, and I think that update was just to meet requirements to stay on the store. Their last changelog entry is adding the menu icon after Android ditched the physical menu button. There are a bunch of settings that are broken or do nothing due to changes to Android over the decades (TB has been around for so long that it supports Android 1.5).

I've been using Swift Backup as a replacement these past few years. It's closed source but was recommended to me, and I haven't run into any problems yet. Is Neo better in some way, aside from being FOSS?

Google don't need an app if they want to spy on you.

Unless you've switched to a rom without google play services, they can essentially do anything they want on your phone without you knowing.