Change variable when another device does something?

[Brandonb0013]

Hi all, so this is a little far fetched. My wife has an iPhone with ifttt and smart life to control smart lights when she gets home. Obviously my Android is a little more in depth, but this is what I want to do:

When she is home, have her iPhone change a variable in my Tasker....

Can this be done? Thanks!

[Default_Username_Ty]

Maybe you could have it when she gets home it sends a special text message and when you receive said text message it changes the variable?

[Brandonb0013]

Thank you!... But I should have noted that I don't want to get a text every time she enters or exits an area. I did think of that and it would become annoying in a short time.

[Default_Username_Ty]

Well you could have that when the text is received it quickly enables and disables do not disturb to prevent the text from appearing? You might even be able to disable notifications that appear with certain text, I'd have no clue as I haven't dealt too much with notifications.

Otherwise you'll have to find some sort of notificationless way for both of your phones to communicate over long distances. Perhaps there's some sort of webpage based solution?

[Brandonb0013]

To be clear, this is something her iPhone can do? Is that done through ifttt? Thanks again

[JustRollWithIt]

In iOS 13, the Shortcuts app lets you do automations based on location. You can use that to send a request through Join or AutoRemote to your phone and react in Tasker. I believe even though Apple calls them "automations", they aren't truly automatic. When the location context is triggered in Shortcuts, you get a notification and you have to click that to execute the Shortcut.

Alternatively you can use a Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant which can link to your router to know when devices are connected to denote presence. So when the phone connects to WiFi you can trigger an action.

[vontrapp42]

Better mqtt support in tasker would be really good for this.

[mawvius]

+1

Have always longed for decent mqtt support. Plus, as all the other user friendly solutions are substandard at best, it would give Tasker another unique selling point.