When it comes to automation apps on Android, Tasker is undoubtedly the preferred choice of a majority of users. Despite the fact that the app doesn't have a beginner-friendly UI, Tasker is the go-to choice for many power users due to the vast variety of plugins it offers. For instance, the developers released Tasker v5.9 early last month which introduced a new feature called Logcat events, which opened up a whole new realm of automation possibilities. Now, the app is getting another significant update in the beta channel which brings even more to the table.

As per a recent post on Reddit, Tasker v5.9.2 beta is now rolling out to users and it brings a new feature that will let you run shell commands without being tethered to a PC. For the unaware, this new feature essentially lets you run all actions that you can run in ADB shell when connected to the PC, allowing you to do a lot of things that most regular apps can't do otherwise. However, the feature still doesn't let you do a lot of things that require root-like modification of system files. Here are a couple of things that you can do with the new feature:

  • Manage permissions of other apps (cmd appops)
  • Control overlays (cmd overlay)
  • Toggle airplane mode, mobile data, etc. (svc commands)

While this new feature raised privacy concerns in the original Reddit thread, we can assure you that it's safe to use, provided you just authorize the RSA key for Tasker and don't blindly authorize it for every PC/app that requests to access ADB on your device. If you're interested in learning how exactly this feature works, you can follow this link for a great explanation submitted by a Redditor. The TL;DR version is that when a user runs "adb tcpip 5555", it causes the device to listen for a TCP/IP connection on port 5555, which allows Tasker to send commands "remotely" to the ADB client. Normally this process is used to let you send ADB commands from a PC to your phone while it's untethered, but in this case, Tasker is using it to keep the adb client alive so it can send shell commands to it.

If you're interested in trying out the new feature for yourself, you can sign up for the beta by following this link. In case you're already enrolled in the beta and don't wish to wait for the Google Play update, you can download the updated app here.

Source: Reddit