chaoscreater
Active member
I'm using Windscribe VPN and even though I can use Shortcut Maker to look at the intents used by this app, they don't work. For example, there's a Connect and Disconnect intent and triggering those would just crash the app, so they seem to be useless.
I was able to use adb to do a filter on the intents generated in the background and I've also used Dexplorer to look at the manifest.xml and here's what I've got so far:
I've set up intents using the Send Intent action in MacroDroid before, but they were pretty basic ones. In this case, the Windscribe intents in the logs include the "permission" property and some additional "extras". Based on the above, how can I set this up in MacroDroid? My goal is to simply automate connecting to the VPN. There's also a quick tile that you can tap on to connect/disconnect Windscribe VPN. Tapping it manually works fine, but I can't seem to automate this. None of the configurations I've tried work.
I'm aware that you can use UI Interaction with MacroDroid or tasker, but ideally I'd like to avoid that and just invoke the connection on/off via proper methods.
I was able to use adb to do a filter on the intents generated in the background and I've also used Dexplorer to look at the manifest.xml and here's what I've got so far:
08-09 14:18:37.603 2628 2677 I ActivityManager: Background started FGS: Allowed [callingPackage: com.windscribe.vpn; callingUid: 10792; uidState: CEM ; intent: Intent { cmp=com.windscribe.vpn/.backend.ikev2.CharonVpnServiceWrapper (has extras) }; code:ACTIVITY_STARTER; tempAllowListReason:<null>; targetSdkVersion:33; callerTargetSdkVersion:33; startForegroundCount:0; bindFromPackage:null]
08-09 14:18:37.603 2628 2677 W ActivityManager: Background start not allowed: service Intent { cmp=com.windscribe.vpn/.backend.ikev2.CharonVpnServiceWrapper (has extras) } to com.windscribe.vpn/.backend.ikev2.CharonVpnServiceWrapper from pid=23024 uid=10792 pkg=com.windscribe.vpn startFg?=true
08-09 14:18:59.259 2628 4288 W ActivityManager: Background start not allowed: service Intent { act=org.strongswan.android.CharonVpnService.DISCONNECT cmp=com.windscribe.vpn/.backend.ikev2.CharonVpnServiceWrapper } to com.windscribe.vpn/.backend.ikev2.CharonVpnServiceWrapper from pid=23024 uid=10792 pkg=com.windscribe.vpn startFg?=true
08-09 14:21:00.842 2628 2628 D AlarmManager: mPendingIntent -> PendingIntent{c90c53b: PendingIntentRecord{36c374a com.windscribe.vpn broadcastIntent}}
08-09 14:21:15.828 2628 3058 I ActivityManager: Background started FGS: Allowed [callingPackage: com.windscribe.vpn; callingUid: 10792; uidState: SVC ; intent: Intent { cmp=com.windscribe.vpn/.backend.ikev2.CharonVpnServiceWrapper (has extras) }; code:ACTIVITY_STARTER; tempAllowListReason:<null>; targetSdkVersion:33; callerTargetSdkVersion:33; startForegroundCount:2; bindFromPackage:null]
<service
name="com.windscribe.vpn.backend.ikev2.CharonVpnServiceWrapper"
permission="android.permission.BIND_VPN_SERVICE" />
<service
name="org.strongswan.android.logic.CharonVPNService"
permission="android.permission.BIND_VPN_SERVICE"
exported="true">
<intent-filter>
<action name="android.net.VPNService" />
</intent-filter>
</service>
I've set up intents using the Send Intent action in MacroDroid before, but they were pretty basic ones. In this case, the Windscribe intents in the logs include the "permission" property and some additional "extras". Based on the above, how can I set this up in MacroDroid? My goal is to simply automate connecting to the VPN. There's also a quick tile that you can tap on to connect/disconnect Windscribe VPN. Tapping it manually works fine, but I can't seem to automate this. None of the configurations I've tried work.
I'm aware that you can use UI Interaction with MacroDroid or tasker, but ideally I'd like to avoid that and just invoke the connection on/off via proper methods.
Last edited: