[Android Apps and Games] badhri:
To be frank, before using Tasker and its Google Groups forum, I had no idea of such a thing called 'Intent'. So I'm no expert at this. Even though the thread's title says GUIDE, it is not,umm, exactly that. It is more example oriented and these examples, which I am about to throw at you, are not mine as well. With the knowledge I gathered from Tasker's forum, I searched the web and discovered these things. So the real credit goes to whoever did the initial hard work and came up with these Intents(I have included the original links wherever possible. If i have missed out something, do let me know). If you have come over here, I can safely assume that you have been playing with Tasker for sometime and hence comfortable with its Terminologies. So, without much further ado, let us get started.

In the below Posts(#2,#3 and #4), I have mentioned few examples of this Send Intent action (the very purpose of this thread) and other links which I think might be useful for you in your Intent-hunt.

If you don't want any of this verbal thing, just download the attachment. It is a Tasker project containing the Intents, which I am going to describe here and look into them(i have added labels for most of them, so it should be self explanatory). As with all Tasker projects, review the file manually before importing it(this time you can trust me :D ) . Do not run the Tasks,as such. These are just for references. Copy the action to your own task and use it after editing.

Android Intent

Intent, IMO, is Android's way of communicating between applications. If supported properly in an application, you can, essentially, invoke a part of it from another application. Intent can be called from within an Android application(through Java code, an app developer most probably would) or from Linux part of the phone through the shell using 'am' command. There are few programs, like Tasker and Llama, which allow users to construct Intent to the final user heart's content and send it out.

For further info on intents, head over to the

1) Android official Intent page

2) Exhaustive list of all android Intent actions - StackOverflow question

Tasker- Send Intent action (Tasks -> Action -> Misc -> Send Intent) :

Using this tweeny little action in Tasker, could open up a whole new dimension for you. Send Intent action has following fields. See the official Tasker Guide for the purpose of these fields.

Send Intent [
Action:
Cat:
Mime Type:
Data:
Extra:
Extra:
Package:
Class:
Target:
]

Known Limitations:

1) It only has two extra fields. If you require more Extra(s) to be sent, then you'll have to use the Run Shell action and then use 'am' command.

2) You cannot use Data field and Mime Type field together(both cannot have value for the action, at the same time). But the Tasker dev did say that he'll correct in the future.

Note:

1) There are three kind of targets: Broadcast Receiver, Activity and Service. We'll be mostly dealing with Activity in this thread.(I haven't explored the other two yet)

2) In general, if you have an application, which you want to launch/do-something-with, and you do not know which intent to use, then:

Google 'Android + App name + Application Intents'. Ex: Android Facebook application Intents

If the developer of the app is friendly and responsive, just shoot him a mail saying that you want to" invoke 'so and so' activity through Intent by using Tasker (or a similar app) and whether this is possible or not. Will it be supported in the future?" or something like that. This is your best bet. If there is a forum for the app, then do use it.

There are certain applications like Intent Intercept(which indeed intercepts a number of intents), Android System Info(which helps you peek at the app's manifest file which contains intent filters) or other similar applications which will help you identify the structure of your soon to be Tasker 'Send Intent' action

Ask for help in Tasker- Google Groups

Use Logcat and sniff whats going on, under the hood (I have never tried this. May be I should, from now on)

3) There are other usages of Intents (apart from just app-oriented intents), like setting some CyanogenMod rom settings. I have absolutely no idea on these. If you know, then please enlighten me.

4) All these examples are tried and tested ones - tested on Android 4.3 Stock rom - Rooted - BusyBox installed

Please contribute to this thread, so that I can learn some new thing from you people, every now and then.

Happy time with Tasker and Send Intent :)