Like most individuals, I’m all for things that make my life just a tad bit easier; it’s one of the reasons why I spend so much time researching apps. There are plenty of productivity options to be found in the App Store, but many lack a key characteristic that makes a productivity tool so incredibly handy — automation. Instead of manually setting an action into motion, why not utilize a tool that can do it for you?
IFTTT, an acronym for If This Then That, is an Internet service that launched in late 2010 that’s designed to automate tasks that you create. The service has received considerable praise since its release, even being named one of Time’s 50 best websites of 2012. Since it came out in the App Store last week, IFTTT seeks to become one of the best iOS apps in 2013. But will it?
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How IFTTT Works
When you begin discussing automation services with some individuals, they immediately become panic stricken due to the degree of difficulty that’s sure to be conjoined with the service’s operational procedures. If you’re one of these individuals, rest assured that IFTTT in incredibly simple to grasp. IFTTT utilizes channels, which is a term used to describe one of several third-party services including Facebook, Dropbox and Evernote, to create automated tasks (referred to as “recipes”).
For instance, say that you change your Facebook profile picture and want your Twitter profile picture to match. Instead of going to Twitter and manually changing your profile picture, you can create a recipe that will perform this task for you. If you’re a Netflix subscriber that wants to know when new movies and shows are available for streaming, you can create a recipe that will send you an email notifying you when new releases have been added.
Adding & Creating Recipes
If you’re a novice to IFTTT, you may find yourself a tad perplexed in regards to what you should create for your first recipe. IFTTT currently features 69 channels, and continues to expand. With so many services at your disposal, there’s an incredibly vast number of recipe combinations that can be created. Luckily, many great recipes are readily available for you to browse and add. To do so, tap the recipe button in the upper-right while in the main view and then tap the glasses icon in the upper-left.
The Recipes sidebar is where you’ll add and manage recipes.
Separated into three tabs — Featured, Trending and All Time — each view displays a long list of recipes. When a recipe is tapped, you’re transitioned to a Shared Recipe view that presents an option to use the recipe. A flag and chevron button are also available, allowing you to report the recipe (not sure when this would be needed) and adjust advanced settings (e.g. file path to a Dropbox folder).
Icons make channels quickly discernible when browsing recipes.
If you wish to create your own recipe, head to the Recipe sidebar and tap the plus icon in the upper-right. This leads you to the unimposing Create a Recipe view, which features the trademark if/then statement. Begin by tapping the first + button to select your trigger (e.g. changing your Facebook profile picture). As you scroll through the list of channels, available triggers are displayed below. Once your trigger is chosen, you’ll need to tap the second + button and select your action (e.g. having your Twitter profile picture change to match Facebook).
Selecting a trigger and action is very simple in IFTTT.
Design & Navigation
The ease of creating recipes is indicative of IFTTT’s entire user interface, which is quite intuitive. I especially love the overall minimal design, which strips the app of any unnecessary noise that could be seen as a hindrance. The main view keeps a log of all triggered recipes in a single day, and displays this information in a beautiful vertical timeline. The settings view features a slightly blurred reverse glance of the main view, which is rather neat. The Recipes view allows you to easily trigger individual recipes on and off. Tapping a recipe presents options to turn on a notification to alert you when it’s been triggered, and you can also check (i.e. trigger), edit and delete recipes.
IFTTT’s interface will fit in perfectly when iOS 7 is released.
Drawbacks
The promise of IFTTT is fantastic, but the app is not without its flaws. When adding recipes, you’ll need to activate channels by logging into your accounts. IFTTT requires your iPhone to be running iOS 6 or later, but the app doesn’t make use of the Facebook or Twitter integration, requiring you to instead log in manually. This issue is also present when activating services like Dropbox and Pocket, which are capable of granting permissions via each service’s app. Since I believe in strong, independant passwords, I found myself making frequent visits to 1Password to when activating these channels, and ultimately found the task easier to perform via IFTTT’s website.
I also found myself having issues with logging into Google services. The issue arose when I logged into Feedly, for which I use an older Google account that has my Google Reader data. When I went to activate the Gmail and Google Calendar channels, I was automatically logged into the older Google account with no method of switching to my main account. I ultimately had to correct the issue via the IFTTT website, which allows for the use of multiple Google accounts.
Oddly enough, if you change the Facebook’s channel settings the Facebook app is utilized.
The biggest drawback of IFTTT, though, comes at the fault of iOS at not the developers. Since iOS restricts background tasks, you often run into issues in which actions aren’t triggered because IFTTT hasn’t been opened in awhile. For instance, I have a recipe setup to save my iPhone screenshots to Dropbox. But, if IFTTT isn’t running and I take a screenshot, that action isn’t triggered until I remember to open the app.
Since IFTTT exists primarily as a web service this background issue only applies to iOS specific triggers and actions, which applies to Photos.app, Reminders.app and Contacts.app. So, when I change my Facebook profile picture, IFTTT will change my Twitter profile picture, even if the IFTTT app isn’t running. For such an incredibly convenient service, it’s an annoyance I’m more than happy to endure.
The Bottom Line
IFTTT is the type of service that oozes greatness, and will more than likely become one of the best iOS apps of 2013. I’m currently utilizing eight recipes, which vary in usefulness, and I find myself frantically browsing for more. While the background issue is a tad annoying, as I sometimes find myself babysitting the app, it should hopefully be far less annoying once iOS 7 is released with its less restrictive background processing.
One thing to note about IFTTT is that while the service does automate actions proficiently, it’s by no means instant. I have a recipe in place that sends all of my saved Feedly articles to Pocket, and it often takes more than a minute for the process to run. So, if you find yourself performing a recipe’s trigger and not seeing the completed action, it’s likely that that process is in motion but will need a bit of time before you see the completed result.
Before IFTTT’s release in the App Store, I was ignorant to the service’s existence. In just a few days, I’m hooked by what the app and service is able to offer; true automation that’s accessible from the iPhone. As IFTTT continues to be developed, I’ll be anxious to see that other iOS specific channels make their way to users. Until that time, I’ll wait contently and show off IFTTT to friends and family; watching their panic stricken faces quickly convert to grins.
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