IFTTT – “Put the internet to work for you”
Apple has taken Charmin-Ultra’s motto and mastered the notion that “Less is More;” championing a simple message with a plain white background, leaving their audience fiending for their latest product. Who can remember the iPhone 3g commercial discussing the vastness of the App Store? “Whats great about the iPhone, is that if you want to check snow conditions on the mountain, there’s an app for that. If you want to check how many calories are in your lunch, there’s an app for that. And if you want to know exactly where you parked the car, there’s even an app for that.” Before declaring, “Yup, there’s an app for just about everything, only on the iPhone.” Brilliant.
Four years have passed, and Apple has not backed down on its word, there literally is an app for everything: from voice translators, to Instagram, to Despicable Me video games, and Nike fitness trackers. And now there is even an application that can pick up on triggers from other apps and set in motion a series of actions through other applications.
This Rube Goldberg-esque application is called IFTTT, pronounced “Gift” with a silent “G” (Billy Madison would have a tough time with that one) and is, according to their website, a “service that lets you create powerful connections with one simple statement,” called a recipe. These “recipes” work on an “If This Then That” platform, the “this” being a trigger, and the “that” an action- in attempt to mimic, and even follow through on our impulses automatically.
An example of a IFTTT process would be identifying when you were tagged in a picture on Facebook and automatically saving the image to DropBox. (If I am tagged in a picture, then save it to DropBox.) IFTTT (Gift) currently has 67 channels, all with their own unique triggers and actions. Channels vary from Blogger to Craigslist, ESPN to Last.fm, and Google Calendar to YouTube. The possibilities seem endless. Shared “recipes” include, “Send me a joke when it rains so I won’t be depressed,” “Good morning Twitter at 8am,” “New movies on DVD, add to Google calendar,” and “When I post to Facebook, post it to Twitter as well.”
The apps that help manage our lives seem endless. Now if only there was an app for when I’ve misplaced my iPhone…oh wait, there is!
Until next time,
Kelli Richards, CEO of The All Access Group, LLC
