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Tasker profile help: ring only for contacts

A

aysiu

Android Expert
I'm trying to set up a working Tasker profile that will ring my phone audibly only if a phone call comes from one of my contacts and not some random number.

I've done some Googling on this and tried C:ANY and !C:ANY... I've tried Incoming Call and Phone Ringing (not sure what the difference is), but nothing seems to work.

The random calls always ring.

Does anyone have a working Tasker profile that accomplishes this? In other words, don't conjecture about "Oh, if you just do X, Y, and Z that should work." I would prefer replies of "I have set up that exact profile, and this is what it looks like, and it definitely does work."

Thanks in advance!

P.S. The random calls are not always from the same number(s). I've added a bunch of numbers to a "wrong number" contact, which goes straight to voicemail, but there are still calls from other random numbers occasionally. I really want my phone to ring only if an actual contact calls me.
 
aysiu said:
I really want my phone to ring only if an actual contact calls me.
Click to expand...

This app will do that for you

Mode should be: Block blacklist excluded exception list
In settings Blacklist should read: Private Numbers and Numbers Not in My Contacts (I have both set to: end call + Block SMS)

This app will log both blocked calls and SMS for you to review at your leisure. Calls not in contacts will go to voicemail. Texts will simply be logged. Either way, you will not be disturbed.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.baole.app.blacklist
 
Thanks, gtbarry. I'll check that out and put it on my wishlist.

I'm still interested in the possibility of using Tasker, though, since I already have that installed. If anyone has Tasker profiles for this, let me know.
 
If your contacts are separated into groups you don't need an app at all. One 1 group would have a ring. The other groups you just select "no ring" as your ring tone.
 
I don't see options to put contacts into a ring group or non-ring group. I'm on a Galaxy Nexus. Is this some non-vanilla Android thing?
 
I don't believe you can add unknown numbers to the group.... mainly because you don't know the number. Here's what I do in many of the scenarios here and there all just ideas due to the fact that we're humans...
1. Many phones today have an option to reject a call with a text message. And if you're certain that it's telemarketers,.. have a little fun. If your unsure best to let go to voice mail. I personally have a contact named "telemarketers" Not going to lie it has at least 30 numbers in it. Your device may restrict the amount of saved #s per contact but you can get a bit creative if necessary like I did and call them "DNA 1..2..3..". ETC. Now give that contact a silent ring. . You'll never hear from them again literally. No PUN intended.
 
Tasker can NORMALLY do this, but some devices (might be manufacturer specific) ignore changes to the ringer volume or ringtone while the phone is ringing. My GSM Galaxy Nexus doesn't suffer from this. With Tasker you may want to use the Play Ringtone action after making the changes to your ringer volume. This worked for me on at least one LG device.
 
UncleMike said:
Tasker can NORMALLY do this, but some devices (might be manufacturer specific) ignore changes to the ringer volume or ringtone while the phone is ringing. My GSM Galaxy Nexus doesn't suffer from this. With Tasker you may want to use the Play Ringtone action after making the changes to your ringer volume. This worked for me on at least one LG device.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I have the CDMA Verizon Galaxy Nexus. Any chance mine might suffer from the issue you described?

You don't have to hold my hand through the exact step-by-step, but what are the major triggers and actions that would work?
 
Chances are that your phone should work fine. Basically, you would set your default ring tone to silent, then use a Tasker profile like this:

Context: Incoming Call C:ANY
Enter Task:
Default Ringtone Ringer <your ringtone>

This will change the default ringtone when a call comes in from a contract, and change it back when the call is completed.
 
I tried that out, and it didn't work. The Incoming Call context with C:ANY didn't trigger the actual task. Scratching my head here a bit...
 
I just created this profile and tested it:

Profile: Incoming Contact Call (357)
State: Call [ Type:Incoming Number:C:ANY ]
Enter: Anon (361)
A1: Flash [ Text:Incoming call from contact Long:On ]

It worked for me. Are you saying your profile never activated (doesn't appear in the Run Log), or that it didn't have the effect you wanted (i.e. the phone didn't actually ring)?
 
Thanks for your patience and follow-up, UncleMike.

What I wanted to do was have the default ringtone be silent, and then when a contact calls, change the default ringtone to be the normal default ringtone (Men at Work's "Who Can It Be Now?" in case anyone's curious).

What happened with the profile I set up was it just stayed silent when a contact called instead of switching ringtones. Let me try re-creating the profile from scratch to be exactly as yours is in the above post...
 

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I'm confused. Why are you trying to do this with Tasker? That's like taking an 18 speed tandem tractor trailer to drive to the store for a gallon of milk.

Set your default ringtone to a silent one, then assign a different ringtone to each other contact individually. If you have many contacts it will take a few minutes but less time than you've spent trying to configure ringtones that dynamically change at the last minute.

For more advanced call blocking I like this app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vladlee.easyblacklist
At a mere 190KB you don't need to feel guilty about not using Tasker, and it works great.
 
divinebovine said:
I'm confused. Why are you trying to do this with Tasker? That's like taking an 18 speed tandem tractor trailer to drive to the store for a gallon of milk.
Click to expand...
If an 18-speed tandem tractor trailer is what you've already paid for and the only motor vehicle you own, then maybe that's what you do. I already have Tasker. I use it for other tasks, too. I didn't purchase Tasker for this sole purpose. I figure since I have it, I might as well use it.

Set your default ringtone to a silent one, then assign a different ringtone to each other contact individually. If you have many contacts it will take a few minutes but less time than you've spent trying to configure ringtones that dynamically change at the last minute.
Click to expand...
Don't think I haven't already thought of this as a possibility. Two issues I have with this approach:

1. I have 270 contacts, so it will actually take more than a few minutes.

2. Right now, I want my default ringtone to be "Who Can It Be Now?" but if I later want to change it to something else, I'd have to change those whole 270 again individually. No thanks.

For more advanced call blocking I like this app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vladlee.easyblacklist
At a mere 190KB you don't need to feel guilty about not using Tasker, and it works great.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out as a possibility.
 
I can't say with 100% certainty, but UncleMike's suggestion seems to have worked, which is odd, because I could have sworn that's how I had the context set up in the first place.

But I recreated a new profile from scratch, using UncleMike's example. It flashed the appropriate alert. Then I changed the alert to change the ringtone. Seems fine. Again, I haven't tested it in every scenario, but it looks promising.

Not sure why it didn't work for me before...
 
Yeah, I haven't had an opportunity to fully test, so I'm not breaking out the champagne yet, but starting a profile from scratch based on what you suggested has certainly seemed more promising with limited testing than what I had before, so thank you for that.
 
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