Technologists, myself included, often have a lot going on at once and have data across a wide variety of web services. There are scripting languages to automate regular actions on computers, but doesn’t work as well when it comes to web services or cloud services. If This Then That, or IFTTT, allows users to automate actions on the web across numerous web services including Gmail, Evernote, Twitter, RSS feeds and many more. IFTTT can automate actions across these popular web services and create very helpful time saving solutions. IFTTT can do things such as save pictures you are tagged in on Facebook to Dropbox or send Youtube Videos “Saved for later” to Pocket and many other timesaving actions. There are so many services that integrate with IFTTT, which can make it a very powerful tool.
How does IFTTT work one may ask? IFTTT has “channels” for each site it integrates with, for example there is a Gmail Channel. Users must authenticate each channel they wish to use to allow IFTTT access to the account. Channels then have a set of actions which combine with other channels and actions to create a recipe. The recipe is the automated action one wants to achieve, it is comprised of a trigger action, which begins with triggering the recipe and then causes the action to run. For example, I have an action for if I label a message Evernote in Gmail, it will automatically save a copy of the message to Evernote, this can be further automated using Gmail’s filters.
IFTTT recipes are very easy to create, however they also have a large collection of recipes created and shared by other IFTTT users. IFTTT is great for posting content across multiple social networks, saving receipts from Gmail to Evernote, Send a text message reminder do do something a certain time every day and much much more. IFTTT has also just released a new iPhone app for creating recipes on the go and even includes special channels for iPhone contacts, reminders and calendar . IFTTT can help busy technologists save a lot of time by automating their life and can create recipes for so many things. This can make busy technologist’s lives much easier and more efficient.
About the Author
Mike Gdovin has been blogging about technology since 2006 on his blog, Gdovin.net. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Media from Kutztown University with a minor in Journalism, Public Relations and Business. In addition to blogging about technology, Mike is a video producer, technology consultant and social media expert.
