Use Tasker To Toggle Audible Text Messages

Last week I wrote about my new favorite Android app, Tasker. I am using Tasker to automate all sorts of tasks on my phone such as turning on the GPS radio when I start Maps, Gowalla, and My Tracks and turning it off when I exit the programs. I keep the GPS radio turned off on my Nexus One to save battery life, but that means I have to remember to turn it on when I want to use it in apps like Maps, so Tasker is making the process of using these apps easier for me. Today Lifehacker posted another article with more tips for creating Tasker profiles, including one that has the phone read text messages to you when the phone is docked. I've written in the past about apps like DriveSafe.ly that read text messages to you, the idea being that while you are driving you can keep your hands on the steering wheel and hear your messages. The problem that I have had with these applications is remembering to enable the feature when I am in the car. I am going to give the Tasker profile that I have created a try to see if it works more reliably than the other apps that I have tried. An added benefit of this type of automation is that it saves some storage space on your phone because it utilizes Android's built-in text-to-speech capability, rather than installing a special app just to read text messages. The Lifehacker Tasker Read SMS tip is a variation of a tip on the Tasker wiki. The difference between the two is how the automation is triggered. The Lifehacker tip turns reading of text messages on and off based on the Car Home app running on the phone, the Tasker wiki tip triggers the automation when the phone is inserted in the car dock. My version triggers based on running the Custom Car Home app on my phone. I found the instructions at both sites to have errors. In both cases you need to create two profiles, one to read the SMS messages, and the other to control when SMS messages are read. I recommend following the instructions on the Tasker wiki, which I edited, and create the Read SMS profile first. When you tap New in Tasker you select a Context, which define what event triggers the automation, and then specify the tasks that are to be performed. What is not clear is how to turn what you define into a named profile. After you create the context and its tasks, you return to the main Tasker screen. Tap the context name to display the Context Options window, then expand the Profile option at the bottom, select Name and enter "Read SMS" for the name. Finally, follow the same steps to disable the Read SMS profile. The error in the Lifehacker tip is that the contexts are written out of order. It appears that the Task (Misc -> Say) is part of the Application -> Car Home context when it should be part of the Event -> Phone -> Received SMS context. Lifehacker also doesn't define what tasks need to be defined for the Application -> Car Home context, but you will find that on the Tasker wiki. The missing piece in the Lifehacker article is the Tasker -> Profile Status -> Name: Read SMS; Set On task defined on the first profile on the Tasker wiki. The two tasks you see there turn the Read SMS profile that you created previously on and off. If you do not disable the Read SMS profile in Tasker the phone will read every text message that you receive.

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Use Tasker To Toggle Audible Text Messages

Frank McPherson

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Frank McPherson