IFTTT: Go-to app that keeps you up to speed

The productivity app IFTTT may be ancient in internet years - but if you're not using it, you need to ask yourself why? It links all your apps together and once you've got the hang of it, will save you oodles of time.

Screengrab of IFTTT (If This, Then That), a productivity app.

IFTTT (If This, Then That) is a productivity app that’s ancient in internet years – it’s been around since 2011, with many updates since.

But for anyone not already using it, it’s worth devoting some time to explaining what makes it so insanely useful. Rather than having a function of its own, it links other apps together, and the opportunities this allows are endless.

If a stock for a certain company rises by more than 1 per cent, you could tell the app, "send me a push notification".

If I’m almost at work, I can send a text message to my assistant asking for fresh coffee. The first variable is called a “trigger channel”, the second an “action channel”, and the whole formula is a “recipe”. There are tens of thousands of possible recipes, so the best way to get ideas is to do an internet search for IFTTT recipes within a topic that’s of interest, such as “productivity” or “business”.

There are plenty of great marketing uses – for example, a change in weather could trigger a tweet about sunscreen, or a customer “liking” an Instagram post could add that user to a spreadsheet – and it’s also great for filtering the deluge of information the internet provides.

You could set it up to email you when there are articles in certain prestigious journals that are relevant to your field of expertise, for example.

Unlike a lot of productivity apps, it doesn't take a lot of time to set up and figure out how to use it. Whether you're using the online platform at ifttt.com, or the mobile version for iPhone and Android, which is simply called "IF", you get started by picking out some trigger channels that are of interest to you – these might include Stocks, Fitbit, the weather, Twitter and Time magazine – and then the platform itself suggests some recipes to get you going.

Once you’re a pro user, however, you can come up with recipes that are completely idiosyncratic to your own routine, whether that means scheduling an Uber car to be called half an hour before any meeting that’s in your phone’s calendar, or automatically sending silly photos of kittens to your kids whenever their tweet contains a sad face.

q&a interact to up productivity

Jessica Holland analyses more of the benefits of downloading the productivity app IFTTT:

What are some of the most common recipes?

Many people use IFTTT to simply back up their media or sync across platforms: for example, adding new contacts to a spreadsheet, saving iOS photos to Dropbox.

Any tricks?

Well, 26,000 people have also added a recipe called “Text to Escape”: whether you’re in a meeting that’s dragging on or in a social situation that you’re trying to get out of, you can surreptitiously text a code to a certain number, and the app will “phone” you, giving you an excuse to leave.

Where will this lead?

As IFTTT becomes integrated with the Internet of Things, and as more apps are designed with IFTTT functions in mind, anything is possible. For example, users with smart, Wi-Fi-enabled lights, coffee pots, heaters or air-conditioning units can turn their appliances on with their phone.

Will it really save me time?

For sure. Productivity is all about removing the need for decision-making and outsourcing simple, repetitive tasks. It’s quick to set up, and once you’ve done that, you won’t go back. It’s free, and available at most app stores.

Any drawbacks?

Only if you’re nervous about data privacy, as this interacts with so many different applications.

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