Control devices from the Android notification panel using Tasker

In my previous post, I showed a demo on how to control different devices (e.g., TV, sound system, air conditioner) directly from the Android notification panel. I would suggest that you check it out to have an idea of how this project works. On today’s post, I’m going to walk you through the steps on how to set it up.

Disclosure: Some of the links below, are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

To accomplish this, we will need:

The Material Icons app is handy and has lots of different icons that we can use in different types of projects. If you don’t have this application yet, I would suggest that you download it.

For this project, we are going to create four profiles.

Profile #1 – Main Remote

The first profile will have all the devices we would like to control and it will activate when connecting to WiFi.

Main-Remote

Press the “+” icon then click on State > Net > WiFi Connect and select your home WiFi connection.

Open Task – Main Remote

For this task, we only need to setup one Action:

Press the “+” icon then click on Plugin > AutoNotification > Buttons Notification.

Go into Images and set the following options (Note: Make sure you already have all the images you would like to use in this project saved on your device):

Status Bar Icon Manual: Select the image that will display at the top of the screen.
Images: Set the images for each icon in the notification.
Align: Set it to Center.
Column Count: Set it to the number of devices that you would be setting up (e.g., 5).
Button Sizes: Set it to 50.

Next, go into Texts and set the following options:

Texts: Set up the name for each device (e.g., TV,Speaker,PC,Lights,AC). Separate each device name with commas and with no spaces in between.

Now go into Actions and set the following options:

Actions: Set an action name for each device (e.g., tv,speaker,pc,lights,ac). For this, you also need to separate them with commas and no spaces in between.
Action Prefix: Set it to remote. This will create the variable name %remote in Tasker.

For the last option, go into General and set the following options:

ID: Set it to Remotes.
Persistent: Set it to On.
Priority: Set it to Max.

We are done with this Task. Now let’s create the Exit Task.

Exit Task – Disable Main Remote

This task will disable the Main Remote notification when you no longer connected to your home WiFi.

Press the “+” icon then click on Plugin > AutoNotification > Cancel.

In here, you only need to set up the ID option to Remotes which is the ID name for the main remote notification.

Profile #2 – Remotes

For this profile, we are going to create an Event profile which will bring another Button Notification with the remote control buttons for each specific device.

TV-Remote-3

Press the “+” icon and then click on Event > Plugin > AutoNotification > AutoNotification. Set up the CommandFilter to remote=:=. Then go to Advance and set the Command to remote. This will create a variable %remote in Tasker so when a command is sent using that variable it’s going to execute the command to the right of the separator (e.g., %remote=:=TV).

Task – Remotes

For this task, we are going to be using the IF and Else IF conditions.

Press the “+” icon and then click on Task > IF. Click on the Tag icon and select AutoNotification: Everything to the right of =:= (%remote). This is the variable that we created in the Event Profile above. On the right of the condition, set up the command name tv which is the first command to bring the remote notification for the TV.

For the next Action, we need to create another Button Notification like we did for the Main Remote Task.

Press the “+” icon then click on Plugin > AutoNotification > Buttons Notification.

Go into Images and set the following options:

Status Bar Icon Manual: Select the image that will display at the top of the screen.
Images: Set the images for each icon in the notification.
Align: Set it to Center.
Column Count: Set it to the number of commands that you would be setting up (e.g., if you have 10 commands, set the Column Count to 5).
Button Sizes: Set it to 50.

Next, go into Texts and set the following options:

Texts: Set up the name for each device (e.g., TV,Cable,Ch,Vol,Mute,1,2,Ch,Vol,Mic). Separate each button name with commas and with no spaces in between.

Now go into Actions and set the following options:

Actions: Set an action name for each button (e.g., TVpower,Cpower,ChUp,TVVolUp,TVMute, Hdmi1,Hdmi2,ChDn,TVVolDn,Mic). For this, you also need to separate them with commas and no spaces in between.
Action Prefix: Set it to remoteset. This is going to create the variable name %remoteset in Tasker.

For the last option, go into General and set the following options:

ID: Set it to TVRemote.
Priority: Set it to High.

Something that I recommend doing for each Action in this Task is to set up a Label so like that it makes it easier to find and edit a specific action.

For this Action, set up the Label to TV.

OK, so we just created the first remote control notification for the TV. To set up more remotes for the other devices (e.g., Speaker, PC, Lights, AC), use the Else IFcondition and repeat the process above to create a Button Notification. Also, use the same Action Prefix Name “remoteset” for all other Button Notification actions you set up. This will enable us to have the actions for all buttons notification in one single Task. When you finish setting up all the remote control notification, close the IF condition with End IF.

Profile #3 – Remote Actions

For this profile, we are going to create another Event profile that will execute the commands sent by the Remotes Profile above.

Press the “+” icon and then click on Event > Plugin > AutoNotification > AutoNotification. Set up the Command Filter to remoteset=:=. Then go to Advance and set the Command to remoteset. This will create a variable %remoteset in Tasker so when a command is sent using that variable it’s going to execute the command to the right of the separator (e.g., %remoteset=:=TVPower).

Task – Remote Actions

For this task, we are also going to be using the IF and Else IF conditions.

Press the “+” icon and then click on Task > IF. Click on the Tag icon and select AutoNotification: Everything to the right of =:= (%remoteset). This is the variable that we created in the Event Profile above. On the right of the condition, set up the command name TVpower which is the first command to turn on the TV from the TV remote notification.

For the next action, we are going to be using the Tasker Plugin for Harmony to send commands to a Harmony Hub.

Press the “+” icon and then click on Plugin > Tasker Plugin For Harmony.

When you open the plugin, set up the following options:

Type: Set it to Send Command.
Device: Set it to Living room TV.
Command: Set it to Power Toggle.

After you setup the Plugin, you want to set up a label for it. This would make it easier to find and edit in the future. This Task could get quite long.

For this Action, set up the Label to TV power toggle.

OK, so we have the first action setup to send a command to turn on/off a TV. To set up the next action, use the Else IF condition and repeat the process above. When you finish setting up all the commands for each action, close the IF condition with End IF.

There is one action that I created in here that has a mic icon that uses AutoVoice to recognize when we say a channel number. To set it up, Click on the “+” icon then Plugin > AutoVoice > Recognize. You don’t need to make any changes within the Plugin. Next, we are going to create the following profile.

Profile #4 – Channel Number

For this profile, set up an AutoVoice Recognized State Profile to trigger a task when a specific channel number is said.

Press the “+” icon and then click on State > Plugin > AutoVoice > Recognized.

In here, go into The Hard Way and set up the following:

Event Behaviour: Set it to On.
Command Filter: Set it to (?<channel>.+). This means that AutoVoice would set a variable with the name %channel and it will save the channel that you say in that variable.
Use Regex: Set it to On.

Task – Remote Select Channel #

In this Task, we are going to use the Tasker Plugin for Harmony to send the command to the TV to change the channel to a specific number.

Press the “+” icon and then click on Plugin > Tasker Plugin For Harmony.