Sending a text to multiple recipients

[Travis Jansen]

Just about the ONLY thing I miss from having switched from iPhone to Android last year when I got my Pixel (and now Pixel2) was the ability to use voice command to send a text to multiple people.  For instance, "hey siri, send a text to Joe Blow and Bob Jones" and I could dictate my text to those people.

For some weird reason, "Hey google" doesn't allow for sending to more than one person.  Being fairly new to tasker, I'm hoping someone might have some tips on using something like Autovoice + Tasker to make something like this happen.  Has anyone ever done anything like this?

[Pent]

I can only say that Tasker's Send SMS action supports multiple recipients. I havn't used AutoVoice, but if you
can get the recients out of there into a variable, you can plug them into Send SMS.

Pent

[Rich D]

For some weird reason, "Hey google" doesn't allow for sending to more than one person. 

Yea, Google simply is not a multitasker "yet". I am actually a bit jealous of "some" of the things my wife's iPhone can do effortlessly where Google really struggles. However I have been able to use tasker to overcome all of them... :)

Being fairly new to tasker, I'm hoping someone might have some tips on using something like Autovoice + Tasker to make something like this happen. 

Yes there is autovoice and Taskernow plugins to help with this. However both of these seem to lack the ability to interact directly with google assistant in the way IFTTT can and I have no idea why. With IFTTT you can make a applet that will directly intercept a assistant command. For example, the assistant can not turn up all of my volumes at once so I made a applet to listen for

max volumes

turn up all volumes

all volumes up

Once you get the applet trigger set you need to get the info to tasker. The plug ins from auto apps and bald apps can help. The way I do it is to use pushbullit (I already had this installed for other things and it seems to be very reliable) to push a note to my device.  The note can contain the data you want to get from IFTTT to tasker.  Then I use 'notification listener' to monitor for that notification. This allows me to get data from %nltext. 

However your project will require a bit of work.  The way I see it is you can try to get all the data like names and the text body into tasker then you will need to process it and send it to the multiple recipients. The issue with that is you  will not have the assistant to help you create the text message IE " do you want to send it  or change it"  Personally The way I would do it would be to get all the info into tasker then put up a small scene that will allow you to view the message and edit it "manually" first or just tap a single button to send it if it looks correct. I have found that if the assistant does not get things correct on the first try then trying to have the assistant fix it is like pulling teeth.. 

Got to go to work right now but I'll post more on this later..

[Rich D]

I have given this some thought and did a few tests. it seems it may be more difficult then I had first thought. The way I see it you have a few options. To use the assistant to make the text message you  can say "send a text to friends" then you need to make a contact named 'friends' and use your mobile number. Then for the text message you say, " bob, jim, joe, message. I am out of the office today". Then in tasker you set profile to monitor for a text from you with the word "message" in it. Now you just split up the data and send the multiple text messages. The downfall of course being you need to use your own text string to accomplish this. The other alternative is to just use a trigger phrase in the assistant like 'Send multiple texts'.  However i did some testing and it appears IFTTT does not like long messages for there text ingredients (there variable). So you cant get a entire message into IFTTT. So you could just trigger Tasker from here and use Taskers voice input to make the message and send it. That is what I have so far..... 

[Travis Jansen]

Thanks so much for looking into this, I appreciate the effort...

~ Travis K. Jansen

On Fri, Mar 2, 2018 at 4:46 AM, Rich D <ricp...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have given this some thought and did a few tests. it seems it may be more difficult then I had first thought. The way I see it you have a few options. To use the assistant to make the text message you  can say "send a text to friends" then you need to make a contact named 'friends' and use your mobile number. Then for the text message you say, " bob, jim, joe, message. I am out of the office today". Then in tasker you set profile to monitor for a text from you with the word "message" in it. Now you just split up the data and send the multiple text messages. The downfall of course being you need to use your own text string to accomplish this. The other alternative is to just use a trigger phrase in the assistant like 'Send multiple texts'.  However i did some testing and it appears IFTTT does not like long messages for there text ingredients (there variable). So you cant get a entire message into IFTTT. So you could just trigger Tasker from here and use Taskers voice input to make the message and send it. That is what I have so far..... 

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[Rich D]

On Mar 2, 2018 9:36 AM, "Travis Jansen" <tra...@jansens.us> wrote:

Thanks so much for looking into this, I appreciate the effort...

I was hoping for some input on the  different  approaches. I personally would lean towards the first that uses the assistant to generate the text message then my own text string to get it into tasker. I see no real disadvantage to this but was looking for some feed back. 

Personally I hate talking to my device. I find it awkward at best. And then when the dam thing does not understand me  and I need to engage in a conversation to try to achieve my goal I get real frustrated real quick. Bottom line is a lot of the time  I could have done it faster by hitting a few buttons.

However being a new pixel 2 owner I have found the assistant to be of limited help. However to get the assistant to trigger Tasker tasks is at this point just plain awkward. With the plug in autovoice you  need to say things like 'Ask autovoice  to make a text message' or you can use a assistant shortcut Wich will do the same thing but  you can use your own  key words like 'Send a message  to friends'  Wich in the end works OK However there is a existing bug with when using autovoice and the assistant on my pixel 2. Most of the time when I want to use the assistant my display is off. So saying 'OK google' will wake the device and start doing stuff. With autovoice my display will stay off.  Hopefully this will will get fixed at some point but for now I just avoid using autovoice. 

I am fairly new to the assistant so Hopefully some other users could chime in if I am missing a easy straight forward way to get information from the assistant into tasker. 

[Rich D]

Hopefully someone will find this useful.. 

This project will allow you to create and send text messages to multiple recipients using the Google Assistant. 

Here is the first working version. This actually works better than I thought it would. 

1. Make a new contact with the name Friends. Use your cell phone number for the mobile number. 

2. Say to the assistant..

"OK Google"

"Send a text message to friends"

3. The assistant will ask 'what's the message'?

4. Say...

"Bob Smith Jim Sally, message, whatever you want to say in your text message"

5. The assistant will send yourself   this text message and the Tasker profile will trigger because you received a text message with the word "Message" in it. 

6. The Tasker task will check the individual names to see if there are any duplicates or if one of the names is a last name. If you have more than one 'Jim' in your contacts then Tasker will show you a menu and let you select the correct contact. 

7. After the task  checks to see if there are duplicate contacts it will send the text message to all the contacts. 

There is a task called 'set text size mt' . This is so you can easily set the text size in the menu for your particular device.

 Change the text size in the 'set' variable action within the task and run the task. 

*** You will need to run this task first before the menu will show correctly***

Profile: Receive My Text Mt (1001)

Event: Received Text [ Type:SMS Sender:9787583657 Content:*message* ]

Enter: Send Text Mt (996)

A1: Destroy Scene [ Name:show contacts mt Continue Task After Error:On ] 

A2: Create Scene [ Name:show contacts mt ] 

A3: Variable Set [ Name:%split To:%evtprm3 Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] 

A4: Variable Split [ Name:%split Splitter:message Delete Base:Off ] 

A5: Variable Set [ Name:%test_name To:%split1 Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] 

A6: Variable Split [ Name:%test_name Splitter: Delete Base:Off ] 

<Start>

A7: Variable Add [ Name:%index Value:1 Wrap Around:0 ] 

A8: Variable Set [ Name:%name_first To:%test_name(%index) Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] 

A9: Array Clear [ Variable Array:%ctnames ] 

A10: Query contacts [ Configuration:Search for *%name_first* Export false Timeout (Seconds):30 Continue Task After Error:On ] 

A11: Variable Set [ Name:%full_name_first To:%ctnames() Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] 

<Check for last name>

A12: If [ %ctnames(#) > 1 ]

A13: Variable Split [ Name:%full_name_first Splitter:, Delete Base:Off ] 

A14: Variable Set [ Name:%index_plus_one To:%index+1 Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:On Append:Off ] 

A15: Goto [ Type:Action Label Number:1 Label:End of last name check ] If [ %index_plus_one > %test_name(#) ]

A16: Variable Set [ Name:%last_name To:%test_name(%index_plus_one) Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] 

A17: Array Clear [ Variable Array:%ctnames ] 

A18: Query contacts [ Configuration:Search for *%last_name* Export false Timeout (Seconds):30 ] 

A19: Variable Set [ Name:%full_name_second To:%ctnames() Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] 

A20: Variable Split [ Name:%full_name_second Splitter:, Delete Base:Off ] 

A21: Variable Set [ Name:%name_match To:1 Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] 

A22: For [ Variable:%name_a Items:%full_name_first() ] 

A23: For [ Variable:%name_b Items:%full_name_second() ] 

A24: If [ %name_a ~ %name_b ]

A25: Array Push [ Variable Array:%match Position:1 Value:%name_a Fill Spaces:Off ] 

A26: End If 

A27: End For 

A28: End For 

A29: If [ %match(#) = 1 ]

A30: Variable Add [ Name:%index Value:1 Wrap Around:0 ] 

A31: Array Push [ Variable Array:%final_names Position:1 Value:%match1 Fill Spaces:Off ] 

A32: Flash [ Text:Match

%final_names() Long:On ] 

A33: Array Clear [ Variable Array:%match ] 

A34: Goto [ Type:Action Label Number:1 Label:Bottom ] 

A35: Stop [ With Error:Off Task: ] 

A36: End If 

A37: Array Clear [ Variable Array:%match ] 

<End of last name check>

A38: End If 

A39: If [ %full_name_first(#) > 1 ]

A40: Show Scene [ Name:show contacts mt Display As:Activity, No Bar Horizontal Position:100 Vertical Position:100 Animation:System Show Exit Button:On Show Over Keyguard:On Continue Task Immediately:Off ] 

A41: Flash [ Text:%final_names(#) Long:On ] 

A42: Stop [ With Error:Off Task: ] If [ %final_names(#) = 0 ]

A43: End If 

<Bottom>

A44: Goto [ Type:Action Label Number:1 Label:Start ] If [ %index < %test_name(#) ]

A45: Flash [ Text:%final_names() Long:On ] 

A46: Perform Task [ Name:Names To Numbers Mt Priority:%priority Parameter 1 (%par1):%final_names() Parameter 2 (%par2): Return Value Variable:%nums_to_send Stop:Off ] 

A47: Flash [ Text:%nums_to_send Long:Off ] 

A48: Send SMS [ Number:%nums_to_send Message:%split2 Store In Messaging App:On Continue Task After Error:On ] 

 

Set Text Size Mt (1005)

A1: Variable Set [ Name:%Text_size To:5 Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] 

Menu Tap Mt (1003)

A1: Array Push [ Variable Array:%final_names Position:1 Value:%tap_label Fill Spaces:Off ] 

A2: Destroy Scene [ Name:show contacts mt ] 

Names To Numbers Mt (1004)

A1: Variable Set [ Name:%names_to_split To:%par1 Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ] 

A2: Variable Split [ Name:%names_to_split Splitter:, Delete Base:Off ] 

A3: For [ Variable:%cont_name Items:%names_to_split() ] 

A4: Query contacts [ Configuration:Search for %cont_name Export false Timeout (Seconds):30 ] 

A5: Array Push [ Variable Array:%cont_num Position:1 Value:%ctphones() Fill Spaces:Off ] 

A6: End For 

A7: Return [ Value:%cont_num() Stop:On ] 

[Rich D]

Forgot to mention this project requires the additional plug-in called "Contacts Task"

[Rich D]

I thought this project might be better and its own post. 

If you have any questions or comments about the project please post them here..

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/tasker/RxQ2c_msfRo