Tasker For Android

I really like my Android phone. But I was having a bit of an issue with the hands free stuff. If I would receive a text in the car, I wanted to listen to it without having to look at my phone. Then, depending on the message, I might need to reply to it. I found an app that did that in conjunction with my hands free Bluetooth device, but it worked once and then wouldn't reliably listen to my voice commands. For example, it would be able to hear "yes" and "cancel", but it would never hear the content of the message I wanted to reply. So basically it was good for listening to the message and then making me frustrated.

The app also couldn't compose a new text message. Every app I looked at wasn't totally hands free for composing a text message - you had to click on a button and then you could compose hands free, but even that for driving isn't safe.

Then I heard about an app that listens for your voice, allows you to compose hands free, and reads/replies hands free. Great. Except it didn't work. After doing some digging, it looks like the app used to work great but doesn't any more for many users and nobody from the company ever responds to emails, so there's no knowing if the app is even supported.

Finally, I heard about Tasker. It allows you to write "code" to control your phone. You can automate tasks. For example, when you push a button on your home screen it could launch an app, wait a few seconds (let the app load), click on a button (to perform a task), and then close the app. There are plug-ins for Tasker, and I bought 2 of them to help me - AutoContacts (to look up contacts in your phone's address book) and AutoVoice (to listen for voice commands/text).

With Tasker, AutoContacts, and AutoVoice (costing me a total of just under $6) I was able to create my own completely hands free texting setup.

When I'm not connected to my Bluetooth device, an incoming text message just alerts me to the sender of the text ("You have a new text message from ....."). I can't do anything else special - no hands free stuff. This is on purpose because the completely hands free requires always listening for voice commands, which really drains your battery. I don't need that when I'm at home - only when driving.

When I am connected to my Bluetooth device, an incoming text message alerts me to the sender and then asks me if I want to read the message. If I say "yes" then it reads the message and asks me if I want to reply. I can say "auto" and it will send an automatic "I'm driving" message to the sender. Or I can compose a text message with my voice and send it. I can also initiate a new text message at any time by saying "send text ". It will look up the name to get the cell phone number. If it didn't understand me correctly (if it can't find the name), it will try again by asking me for the name. Then I speak my message and it is sent. It all works very nicely.

I'll post the actual code I used later when I have time, but I'm very happy with my results so far.