[Tutorial] Turn Taiscale on/off automatically using Tasker (Android)

VPN
1

The latest release of Tailscale for Android comes with 2 cool intents making it possible to use Tasker to create automations to turn on/off the VPN.

To configure an automation, in Tasker:

  1. add a new task, let’s call it “Taiscale connect”
  2. in the task, add a “Send intent” action, you can use the search bar to bring it up
  3. fill in the following fields and leave the rest as default:
    1. Action: com.tailscale.ipn.CONNECT_VPN
    2. Package: com.tailscale.ipn
    3. Class: com.tailscale.ipn.IPNReceiver

To configure the disconnect task, do the same and replace CONNECT_VPN by DISCONNECT_VPN.

Now that the tasks are configured, you can go on and configure your profiles which define the automations. For example, I configured a profile to automatically turn off the VPN when my phone connects to my home wifi:

  1. create a new profile and select “State”
  2. search “Wifi connected” and select it
  3. fill in the “SSID” field with the name of you wifi
  4. go back and link it to the task we created earlier

You can also configure it to automatically turn on the VPN when you disconnect from the wifi by doing the same and checking the “Invert” checkbox when creating the profile.

I hope this help :slight_smile:

2

Sorry to revive an old thread. Is there anyway to define an exit node with this?

3

Anyone trying the tutorial, enter the Target: Broadcast Receiver field only otherwise it won’t work.

Also, for anyone trying to avoid Send Intents, you need to have access to ADB Wifi and you can toggle the Tailscale QuickSettings Tile. You might also require to check that the Tailscale QS Tile is available.

The task description for comparing your configuration:

Note: The part <inside> are comments and there might be some bugs in Tailscale which can possibly fail the task; Reference.

Task: Tailscale Toggle

<Toggle Tailscale QuickSettings Tile.
Requires - ADB Wifi access to Tasker>
A1: ADB Wifi [
     Command: cmd statusbar click-tile com.tailscale.ipn/com.tailscale.ipn.QuickToggleService
     Timeout (Seconds): 10 ]

<OR>
A2: Anchor

<Connect Tailscale
Requires - Nothing.>
A3: Send Intent [
     Action: com.tailscale.ipn.CONNECT_VPN
     Cat: None
     Package: com.tailscale.ipn
     Class: com.tailscale.ipn.IPNReceiver
     Target: Broadcast Receiver ]

<Disconnect Tailscale
Requires - Nothing.>
A4: Send Intent [
     Action: com.tailscale.ipn.DISCONNECT_VPN
     Cat: None
     Package: com.tailscale.ipn
     Class: com.tailscale.ipn.IPNReceiver
     Target: Broadcast Receiver ]
4

Thanks for this, I just downloaded Tasker to turn Tailscale on and off depending on my home WiFi. Searched “tasker” in here and found your post. Working great on Android 15 :+1::folded_hands:. I did try with just launching/killing the app but I needed adb enabled or something, this is much better.

5

For some reason it doesn’t work on Android 13 (crDroid based on LineageOS)

6

Do you need to be rooted for this to work?

7

Thanks for the hint with the Broadcast! Worked great even without Tasker, by using Macrodroid to send the intent

8

Broadcast Receiver is the default that’s why I didn’t mention it.

9

I believe that is this bug If android intent is triggered more than once, a connecting loop is triggered and you can't disconnect · Issue #8013 · tailscale/tailscale · GitHub

10

Nevermind, just make sure the app is unrestricted on battery optimization, that did the trick.

11

Nope, works just fine on my stock android.

12

If you manually run the app, connect and then make sure you’ve picked an exit node, it will keep that exit node setting even if you disconnect, exit the app, etc, and then reconnect afterwards (I just confirmed this with the latest Android app as of this post).

13

People unaware of these areas may not know what to do. A complete tutorial is what mentions everything that is required.

14

Thanks for the tip !
I never thought it would be necessary.

15

Thanks! I’ll give it a go.

16

In the tutorial I mention that other fields should be left as default. That being said, thanks for the additional information :slight_smile:

17

I really appreciate your post. Please don’t think I wanted to correct you and rather wanted to help a needy wondering where they had done it wrong along with a different way of doing the same. Care to crosspost/repost in r/Tasker? I think people may find it helpful.