The Customizable Way to Automate Your Home | IFTTT Review

IFTTT stands for If This, Then That. IFTTT has been around for a few years, so you may have heard of it already. If not, then it’s an important thing to know about if you’re interested in making your home--and your life, really--smarter and more automated. So today we’re going to talk about what IFTTT is in THEORY, and also what it is in REALITY.

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Check out our other articles covering IFTTT:

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IN THEORY:
So, IFTTT -- Basically, you set up a condition, that’s your “if this.” Like, say, “the sun sets” is your condition. The “then that” portion is the result. In this case, maybe it’s “turn the porch light on.” So you put the two things together, and it says, “IF the sun sets, THEN turn the porch light on.” Each of those formulas is called an Applet. You can choose from thousands of pre-made applets, or you can make your own. Simple enough! So, that’s the concept.

IFTTT itself, the brand-name thing, is an app, available on phones, tablets, laptops, whatever, that acts as a go-between, a third-party software that lets other software and devices talk to each other when they wouldn’t normally be able to do so.

IFTTT EXAMPLES:
● The first thing I ever used IFTTT for: I use Reddit a lot, but they wouldn’t send me a push notification every time there’s a new post on a specific subreddit. With IFTTT, I can tell it to do just that. I just said, IF there’s a new post, THEN send me a push notification. It ties Reddit and my phone together in a way that they weren’t necessarily designed for.
● Or, another social media use case: You ever post a photo to Instagram, then try to share that post on Twitter? Well, Twitter won’t show that image, and just shares the link. Well, with IFTTT, you can get around that, so that every time you post on Instagram, it posts the same photo to Twitter as well. Great! (Yeah, I know, you can also do that with something like Hootsuite. It’s just an example!)
● What about home automation? Maybe I want to voice control of my sprinklers? Maybe I’ll go with the RainMachine controller that has IFTTT integration. Then I can tell my Google Assistant to turn the sprinklers on or off
● Or maybe I’ll get the Skydrop system, which will let me set up an applet that says, “IF the forecast calls for rain, THEN stop watering for that day.”
● Or I pair together my sprinklers with the facial recognition in my doorbell camera, so that IF my annoying neighbor comes by AGAIN, THEN … my sprinklers will turn on and chase him away.

IN PRACTICE:
In practice, honestly, yeah, it works! It does require a lot of parts all working together perfectly, though, and if just one link in the chain of apps or devices isn’t working quite right, the whole thing can break down. That being said, it does generally work pretty much as advertised. What isn’t advertised, of course, are the limitations in the system. And there are a few.

IFTTT SYSTEM LIMITATIONS:
● It's completely cloud-based, so lots of commands are passing through the IFTTT servers at the same time. So if enough people are issuing commands at the same time, bandwidth issues could cause lag. A physical hub like the Smartthings hub could solve for that, since it does all the computing locally in your home. Honestly, this hasn’t been much of a problem for me, but I’m not a really heavy user. If you get really into IFTTT, though, this could be an issue.
● It only allows for a single step. Other competing software sometimes allows for 2- or 3-step commands. For example, if I enter a new event on my Google Calendar, I want a reminder sent to me in Slack and I want my Philips Hue lightbulb to turn red. (For some reason.) In some competing systems, like Zapier, for example, those multi-step commands can be built right in. With IFTTT, you have to program a separate applet for each and every command.
● And finally, the compatibility list of devices and apps that work with IFTTT is changing all the time... and that doesn’t mean it’s constantly improving. For example, as of a month ago, Nest devices no longer work with IFTTT. So if you were counting on that stuff to work for you, well, too bad, it’s gone. What gives? Well, Google wants you on their Google Assistant platform. And that sort of shuffling happens fairly frequently.

IS IFTTT THE BEST OPTION FOR HOME AUTOMATION?
Nah, probably not. IFTTT is better for mostly web-based applications. Social media, email, calendars, and so on. For actual products in your home, probably best to steer toward a physical hub, like the Samsung Smartthings, or any number of security systems that have a hub built right in.

[ReviewsOrg]

What are your favorite IFTTT applets/recipes/commands?

[hououinkyouma]

As a programmer, I've always coded my automated scripts and bots myself. This looks like a nice alternative to save the effort 😅

[markndeb]

Would using IFTTT be able to bypass the inability for my Eufy Doorbell to work with my Samsung Smart fridge?

[quatie]

I use it to add songs from playlists I follow on Spotify to my own playlist.

[ShivamSingh-goqw]

As a digital marketer what is more useful for me?
IFTTT or Zapier

[VIvisitindia]

Is ifttt safe, i got an alert from facebook that ifttt is turned off, it may be suspicious . Please reply me

[ambob]

Many thanks for this clear explanation

[advneha]

Does ifttt manage and capture all your information you have added in your social media sites and fb as it always mention to manage all your private information

[stewartmoir]

Said it before in terms of smart home stuff. It needs to be open, open sourced and backwards/cross compatible. Until that happens I won't waste time on it because if you do and you decide to upgrade a component to your home, suddenly that component isn't compatible with your current setup.

It's a shame really that companies do this instead of innovating to bring people in they forcably try to lock them into an ecosystem that 2 years later the company abandons anyway.

[songxingmu]

Is this app same as iPhone shortcut app?

[dancoz]

Is there a cost ???? for this service?

[travellerseko]

All applets for Monzo banking requires to have access to Freeze and unfreeze your card. Why do you need that while you don't need to have that kind of access? This is nonsense.

[MrBobWareham]

Thanks for the video it opened my eyes to using IFTTT so I am going to pass thanks so is there a better app

[CaptainSnackbar]

use Arduino to automate your home, much safer than a cloud that internet dependent

[TamarZiri]

starts (hopefully at 0:50) ugh get to the point already please...