Have you ever wished your apps could talk to each other? For example, wouldn’t it be nice if you could ask the Weather app to send you the weather forecast every morning via iMessage or email? Or send a notification when it rains? Or ask all the smart lights in and around your home to turn on and off automatically at sunset and sunrise, respectively?
Presentation of IFTTT
If so, you’ll love IFTTT (which stands for “If This, Then That”), a free platform that helps apps and services work better together. To get started, visit the appropriate App Store and download the free IFTTT app for your iPhone or iPad. Now launch the app, set up your free account, then hit the Explore button near the bottom of the screen.
The instruction sets you create with IFTTT are called applets, and the Explore page displays a variety of applets created by others. I recommend spending some time with these prebuilt applets before trying to create an applet from scratch.
How it works
To learn more about an applet, tap it once to open it, then tap the Connect slider to activate it. Once activated, tap on the small gear in the upper right corner to see (or change) how it works. For example, my weather report applet allows me to specify a time, location, and daily forecast content (like current temperature, forecast high and low temperatures, humidity, etc.).
My custom weather forecast applet for Austin, TX.
When you have mastered how applets created by others work, try creating one from scratch by tapping the Create button at the bottom of the main screen.
Once you have activated (connected) an applet, you can trigger it by pressing its button in the IFTTT app. You can also choose to display it as a widget in the Today view of your iDevice or as a button in the IFTTT app on your Apple Watch.
My favorite applets
I have dozens of applets, but the two I use the most are:
Save Mac Geek Gab Show Notes to Evernote: This applet monitors the RSS feed for Mac Geek Gab and creates a note in Evernote containing the show notes for each new episode.Emergency button: This invaluable applet allows me to get out of sticky situations quickly and easily by calling my iPhone and reading a pre-recorded message (which I pretend to be something urgent that I need to take care of). It’s sneaky but still so helpful.
While the standard IFTTT plan is free (forever) and lets you run an unlimited number of applets created by others, you can only create three custom applets. If you need more than three (like me), you can subscribe to the Pro plan, including unlimited applet creation, multi-step applets, conditional logic (if this, then that), and technical support. for $ 3.99 per month or $ 39.99 per year.
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