[APP][2.2+] Impel - easily and automatically do things

winsettr · Feb 13, 2013

For arguments sake (and hopefully being helpful) Widgetsoid 2.0 has never stopped working for me on all Android updates up to 4.2.1, including system toggles like GPS/wifi/airplane. It seems that would suggest the specific commands that Impel is using are different from those of Widgetsoid...?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

mstroud · Feb 13, 2013

winsettr, we know about Widgetsoid, but we believe that you are confusing the appearance of a feature that is like what is being asked for with what Impel actually is supposed to (and used to) do.

Widgetsoid can only ask the system to show a page where it believes the system GPS toggle, system Airplane mode toggle, system lock screen toggle, etc. is. That is not what Impel, Tasker, Llama or any of the other task automation apps can use.

Impel, Recast (and other's task apps) require a direct, system level call to make these switches change on command, then have the ability to read back the change and tell the apps that these switches are in a new state. All of that code is now completely disabled by Google, and there are no signs that these features will ever return. Asking the customer to wait for the phone to wake up, unlock the screen, show a system page and have them manually set a switch instead of having it happen automatically would be and is utterly pointless.

Because of these reasons we stand by our original post: these features were disabled by Google and are no longer available in Android 4.x.

3ncrypt3d_Droid · Feb 13, 2013

mstroud said:
Lavie, since Android 4.0, Google no longer supports non-system apps having the ability to turn GPS on or off. This was something that Google gave no warning about and there is no way for us to re-enable the feature. This change impacted all task and widget apps, so there aren't any apps that support this function any longer that we are aware of.

So its probably not as simple as to push this to system/ app?

mstroud · Feb 13, 2013

3ncrypt3d_Droid, we're not sure what you mean by "push this to system/ app?"

What Google did is this: the only apps, widgets or panels that can now directly toggle the GPS, Airplane mode and Lock screen enable/disable features without any kind of customer interaction must be code signed by the system. This means that only the people building the ROM image, such as Motorola, Samsung, HTC, Sony, etc. or the CyanogenMod team may use these paths. They must sign whatever app, widget or panel they want to use these functions with the exact same certificate as they use on the actual ROM itself.

What this now means is that no 3rd party code, such as Impel, will ever be able to use these functions again, since we don't have these certificates and we will not be giving our code to these OEMs and ROM builders to have them compile and release the apps as their own. For all practical purposes these toggles are now gone from all apps in the Google Play Store, Amazon Appstore, and from any independent app builders.

3ncrypt3d_Droid · Feb 13, 2013

Thanks for your clarification

I didn't think it would be as easy as for instance taking root explorer and putting your app in the /system/ app directory.

mstroud · Feb 13, 2013

Trust us: if there was any easy way to fix this issue we would have done it. Instead, for the past few months we've had to answer a steady stream of confused and angry customer emails asking why "we broke it." We then have to explain that it was the customer moving from an Android 2.x to a 4.x device that was the change and that "Google restricted it." Not fun times, we can tell you.

winsettr · Feb 13, 2013

mstroud said:
Widgetsoid can only ask the system to show a page where it believes the system GPS toggle, system Airplane mode toggle, system lock screen toggle, etc. is. That is not what Impel, Tasker, Llama or any of the other task automation apps can use.

I appreciate the explanation, but I'm a bit confused; are you saying this is what goes on in the background? Because I have various Widgetsoid widgets on my homescreen, one of which is GPS toggle. When I press the toggle button, my GPS is correctly toggled and the status icon changes accordingly (and all of this is done without any settings pages appearing). However, toggling 2G/3G does not work, but rather a settings page is displayed like you mentioned. Thanks for help!

EDIT: Also, out of curiosity, do you know why Impel works correctly with alternate kernels (I'm using Lean Kernel and all toggles work flawlessly)?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

mstroud · Feb 13, 2013

winsettr, I wish I had the ability to capture a video and show you, but your explained behavior for GPS does not work on any 4.2.x device we have. Google has removed the system calls to do it, so when we tap on any widgets for GPS, Airplane mode or Lock screen on/off they do nothing. The system widget and system panel shows no changes, and in our debugging code we can see no callbacks from the system. In essence, the OS is eating the calls we make and responding with silence.

On the same devices with Widgetsoid, tapping its widget for GPS or Airplane mode does only take you to the system page. It cannot do the toggle in the background as you explain. I don't know how your device does it, but that isn't how it can work any longer on production devices with Android 4.1.x and 4.2.x.

winsettr · Feb 13, 2013

Maybe it has something to do with CyanogenMod (CM10.1M1, Android 4.2.1) or Lean Kernel because I'm having no problems with Widgetsoid or Impel working...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

mstroud · Feb 13, 2013

Well, our Nexus 10 and Galaxy Nexus both have CM 10.1 on them, nightly builds from the past 24 hours, and both of them require a visit to the system settings page to toggle GPS or Airplane mode. I don't know how yours works, but hang on to it.

idk · Feb 27, 2013

Hi mstroud,

I was wondering if a feature you could add that the splash screen not show up when switching tasks? The problem I'm having is that I have a task to turn screen to max brightness when plugged in, and then switch back to automatic when unplugged. I'm watching youtube, and the the splash screen makes youtube lose it's buffer and have to rebuffer. It could be one of the benifits if you've paid for the app?

Another thing I know that I've seen before is that I've paid for the app via in app purchase, but it seems that it looses that setting sometimes and asks for me to buy it again. If I restart the phone, it's back to the paid version again.

mstroud · Feb 27, 2013

idk, we'll have to look into changing how the brightness settings work, since I know we had to put in those screens purposefully to support some devices that wouldn't take the changes any other way.

As for the app licensing pester screens, we have had some reports of this happening. It is out of our control how and when this occurs, since it is using all of Google's Play Store licensing libraries and services to manage that part. We spent quite a bit of time on that area last year but it seems that Google doesn't keep the Play Store client-to-server communications very stable from month to month. We'll have to investigate it again, but don't hold your breath that we'll find a quick or easy solution. Sadly, this is one area where Google hasn't done much to help we small developers out.

idk · Feb 27, 2013

mstroud said:
idk, we'll have to look into changing how the brightness settings work, since I know we had to put in those screens purposefully to support some devices that wouldn't take the changes any other way.

As for the app licensing pester screens, we have had some reports of this happening. It is out of our control how and when this occurs, since it is using all of Google's Play Store licensing libraries and services to manage that part. We spent quite a bit of time on that area last year but it seems that Google doesn't keep the Play Store client-to-server communications very stable from month to month. We'll have to investigate it again, but don't hold your breath that we'll find a quick or easy solution. Sadly, this is one area where Google hasn't done much to help we small developers out.

Not a problem. It's not a big deal. I usually reboot my phone at least once a week anyways. And only notice it maybe once a month at most. Just thought it was worth informing you.

Thanks for looking into the brightness settings. I didn't think they'll be required, but if that's the only way, then I'll live with it. Not really Impel issue anyways, more of a crappy Sprint data service issue.

Dodfr · Mar 1, 2013

Can Impel help me fix a MMS bug thru some automation ?

I am facing a Samsung Galaxy Note (4.04) bug that prevent to fully receive MMS if DATA is off (on my HTC Desires S the MMS receiver can turn DATA ON temporaly only time to receive MMS and then turn it OFF again) and if I turn ON DATA and press the "download" button on the MMS, it do not download it.

I don't want to keep DATA ON if not needed and that's the way I did it with my HTC Desires S.

But I found a manual workaround that I would like to automatize if Impel can do it, here is the process :

1 - Detect new incoming MMS
2 - Check MMS sender's phone number or special sibject like "mms bug fix"
3 - check if DATA is ON
4 - if sender is my own phone number and DATA is ON then go to point 10
5 - If DATA is OFF then the MMS has not been received because of the bug
6 - Turn DATA ON
7 - Send a small MMS to myself with subject "mms bug fix"
8 - As DATA is actually ON, wait for my own MMS (can be detected looking as sender's phone number that will be my own phone number), and as my own MMS as been received I kown that all previous queued MMS has also been received
9 - Turn OFF DATA
10 - end of procedure

So technically I need to know if Impel can :

- Trigger on MMS reception
- Send MMS with specific subject
- Read MMS sender's phone number and subject
- Check if DATA if on/off
- Turn DATA on/off

Of course I will add some check to avoid endless loop.

regards.

mstroud · Mar 1, 2013

Dodfr, at this point Impel does not support MMS at all. This is because Google does not support MMS via any known APIs or SDKs and our investigations have shown that MMS is implemented very differently from carrier to carrier. So for now Impel cannot assist you with your request.

sether52 · Jun 10, 2013

First of all, love the app. Been using it since you started. Secondly, can you add a selection on the first page for me? Basically, I'd only like it to send a text message to my wife when I plug in my phone between 430 and 630 pm on weekdays. I need to be able to select weekdays on that first screen. Thanks!

mstroud · Jun 11, 2013

We believe that Impel already has what you are looking for: the option for selecting days is part of the "When this event occurs" setup. Take a look at the screens below for examples of what this looks like. Is this what you are asking about?

Edit an existing task, add another event

Pick a Time event

Pick Select days option

Pick the days you want to task to work on

sether52 · Jun 11, 2013

But, then you have to pick a time after that screen, and I've already told it from 430 to 630 on the last screen. Thanks for your help.

mstroud · Jun 11, 2013

I see, you are asking for a new conditional option, which is a set of days only. That isn't something we have in Impel currently, so I'll have to put this as a request for a future version of the app to the engineering team. Thanks for asking about it.

Pixelhouse · Jun 11, 2013

purchased plus but i can't turn off/on GPS on my i9505 galaxy s4 please fix this

[APP][2.2+] Impel - easily and automatically do things

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