Automate yourself!
19.7.2016
Translation: machine translated
Do you know "If This Then That"? You don't? But you should! The service can make your life easier and save energy. The killer feature: your coffee machine is waiting for you in the morning, pre-heated.
Repetitive tasks are a horror. That's where the machine comes in handy: It does the same thing over and over again without complaining. This is exactly what "If This Then That" (IFTTT) was invented for. It's your ever-ready digital butler.
The free service can be connected to numerous applications, such as Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, Slack, Evernote, Dropbox, weather services and much more. The elegant thing about it is that all functions can be linked together as desired.
How it works
As the name "If This Then That" suggests, the service does exactly that. Example of a recipe: "If it rains tomorrow, send me a push message on my smartphone." A recipe is made up of a trigger and an action: If this occurs, then do that.
A trigger can be an action of a service or a device. Example of a trigger:
- Facebook: I have been tagged in a photo
- Mail: Email received from x
- Weather service: It will rain tomorrow
- Smartphone: GPS coordinates are x,y
- Smartphone: Photo taken
- Smart sensor at home: motion detected
The defined action is then sent to a service or device:
- Facebook: Move photo to album
- Mail: Send mail to
- Send push message to my smartphone
- Google Drive: put file in folder
- Evernote: create a note
- Philips Hue: switch on light, change colour
- Smart plug at home: Switch off power
The IFTTT Community has created thousands of recipes that you can easily add and customise. With a few button presses and good ideas, the possibilities are almost endless. If you have the IFTTT app (iOS, Android) installed on your smartphone, the possibilities increase significantly.
An overview of recipes for different purposes can be found here:
https://ifttt.com/recipes/collections
The whole thing gets really exciting if you have one or two smart devices at home. This allows you to save electricity with simple tricks or automate tedious tasks.
Light
The Wi-Fi lamps LIFX or Philips Hue can be used together with IFTTT
More smart lighting from Philips
You can use this to realise the following recipes, for example:
- When I get home, switch on the light
- When I receive a text message/call on my Android phone, flash blue twice
- If someone is at the door (see below), briefly switch the colour to green
- Recipes for LIFX
- Recipes for Philips Hue
Saving energy
- When the sun comes up, switch on the coffee machine
- When I leave the house, switch off the Wi-Fi and TV
- Recipes for D-Link Smart Plug
- When I leave the office, I set the temperature at home to 20°
- When I leave the house in the morning, switch off the heating
- If the weather gets warmer tomorrow, reduce the temperature to 16°
- Recipes for the Netatmo Thermostat
- Send me an alarm when frost is expected during the night
- Send me a push message if it's going to rain tomorrow
- Alert me via push if the CO2 content in the air is too high
- Recipes for the Netatmo weather station
Monitoring
- Send me a push message when an unknown person enters a room
- Capture all movement reports in a Google Spreadsheet
- Recipes for the Netatmo Welcome
Alternative [[productlist:3520340,5762256]]
- When motion is detected, switch on Philips Hue
- When motion is detected, switch on the recording
- Arm Arlo when I leave the house
- Recipes for Netgear Arlo
- Recipes for Piper Nighvision
- Switch on the light when someone is at the door
- Record the movements in front of the door in a spreadsheet
- Recipes for Ring
- Send me a push notification when there is water in the house
- Recipes for the water sensor
- Run a Harmony Activity when I get home
- Switch off the music when someone is at the door (with ring)
- Recipes for Logitech Harmony
For athletes
- Note the measured weight in a spreadsheet
- Fitbit Aria Recipes
- Record sleep activity in a spreadsheet
- Switch on the light when I get up
- Document daily activity in a spreadsheet
- Recipes for Fitbit
.of course also works with Jawbone! [[productlist:5634405]]
For bookworms
- Rapidly beam documents to your Kindle
- Recipes for Kindle
Bonus recipe for digitec fans!
There is an SMS alert when your order is ready for collection. But that costs 20 cents. Solution for smart customers (i.e. you): Receive a push notification when your order has arrived in the shop or at a PickMup pick-up point!
I assume that you have a supported email account (e.g. Gmail) or are willing to create one. I recommend that you create a second account for IFTTT anyway: The programme needs full access to your account! You simply forward the emails you need for the trigger to the second account.
- Add a new recipe
- Trigger: Gmail
- Select the filter "New email in inbox from search"
- Add the text "Order ready for collection" as search text (note that it is case-sensitive)
- Select "Send a notification" as the action
Tadaaa
Unfortunately, there are some things you can't do with IFTTT: Receiving/sending text messages or calls only works with Android. The corresponding function for iOS is blocked by Apple. WhatsApp is also locked and cannot be connected.
I hope you like IFTTT too and that you can use one or two of the recipes. If you want to share a tip with the Community, please leave a comment. If the article goes down well, we'll write something about Zapier. Check back again sometime!
More about home automation
Aurel Stevens
Chief Editor
aurel.stevens@digitecgalaxus.chI'm the master tamer at the flea circus that is the editorial team, a nine-to-five writer and 24/7 dad. Technology, computers and hi-fi make me tick. On top of that, I’m a rain-or-shine cyclist and generally in a good mood.
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