The possibilities of IFTTT were almost endless just over a decade ago. However, after integrate with intelligent voice assistantsIFTTT exponentially multiplied its capabilities.
With the massification of this service, numerous changes were also made. During the early years, IFTTT was a totally free tool. Currently, the Free IFTTT account lets you activate a maximum of 5 Applets. However, there is a trial mode of Pro mode in which you will be able to use a total of 20 applets for a limited time.
How to integrate IFTTT into your smart home
In essence, IFTTT works as a routine creator of Alexa or Google Assistant. What is the point of using it then? The beauty of IFTTT is that it works application bridge and services that don’t have native integration with Alexa, Google Assistant, or HomeKit. In addition, it also serves to execute tasks that do not exist within the ecosystem of virtual assistants.
IFTTT can unlock routines that currently do not exist in our voice assistants. If you are interested and want to learn how to use it, follow these Steps:
register an account
To get started with IFTTT in your smart home, the first thing you need to do is go to ifttt.com and register an account. Done that, you can activate the 7 day pro account without fear, since they will not ask you for a form of payment.
Activate the integration with your virtual assistant
Once we have the account, we can take a look at the platform or jump directly to activate integrations with our device.
- IFTTT + Alexa: We will go to ifttt.com/amazon_alexa and click on the ‘Connect’ button. Then, the Amazon OAuth window will appear. We will put our username and password of the Amazon account that our Amazon Echo uses. Ready. You will now be able to use IFTTT recipes on your Amazon device.
- IFTTT + Google Assistant: Similarly, we’ll go to ifttt.com/google_assistant, click ‘Connect’ and associate our Google account that we use for Google Home or Nest devices.
- IFTTT + Apple HomeKitNote: There is no native integration between IFTTT and Apple’s voice assistant yet. However, you can connect the App Store, Health, iOS Reminders, Calendar, and other Apple apps as integrations within IFTTT.
Download IFTTT on your mobile
You can manage everything from the browser, but the easiest thing is to install IFTTT on your iOS or Android phone and manage the applets from there.
Simply search for the IFTTT app in the Play Store or the Apple AppStore, install the program and log in with your username and password.
Once you do, IFTTT will notify you that the program will run in the background. Accept the permissions and you’re done.
Add more Applets and services
The best thing you can do at this point is to research the recipes that users have uploaded to IFTTT and see if they can work for you. You can discover all this through the tab ‘Explore‘.
If you use the Amazon assistant at home, you can search ‘Alexa‘ inside the browser. In the first line, the different services compatible with Alexa that IFTTT supports, such as Philips Hue, Ring, Nexx or Virtual Buttons, will appear in the form of a square.
Just below, you can access an almost infinite list of applets created by users. Each card will show you what the action does, the creator, the total number of users that have that recipe enabled, and the services needed to run that applet. In addition, there are official recipes created by the developers of said services.
Once you have found an Applet that you want to use, click on the Applet and click ‘Activate‘. If the program requires additional permissionsyou’ll be prompted to add new accounts to IFTTT or accept permissions on your phone, such as if a recipe requires obtaining the Location of your phone.
Applet Configuration
Most Applets are automatic, but others may require our action to configure them. For example, if we use a recipe that performs an action when we get home, the Applet will ask us for the location of our home in order to check the location and carry out its task.
Create your own Applets
If you can’t find the most suitable IFTTT recipe for you, you can create it. To do this, go to the IFTTT app on your smartphone and click on ‘Create‘ at the bottom of the main menu.
You can create Applets in two steps. At the top (If This), you’ll need to set the action trigger. For example ‘Android battery is below 15%’. Then, at the bottom you will have to place the action to execute. The possibilities are limitless. You can just send an email with the warning, but you can have Alexa notify you or even perform an action on a home automation device that you control through Alexa, such as a light bulb or Nanoleaf panels, which can even change color to notify you that you should put to charge the mobile.
When creating, yes you are going to have certain problems with the Free account —and even with the 7-day trial—. Pro users can add more than one element to the action argument (If This), which we won’t be able to do if we don’t pay for the full service. However, we recommend that you try recipes contributed by the community and pay or not depending on what IFTTT can bring you in your day to day and daily tasks.
IFTTT in a Smart Home
Automate the lighting of lights to another level
Until now, you could turn the lights on or off in certain rooms of your house with parameters such as time or sunset. But… What if I told you that you can turn them on automatically when you get home without touching a single switch?
Or, let’s take a more complex case. Let’s say you turn on the lights in your living room right at dusk, and this week they turn on at about 8:12 p.m. What happens on a stormy day? Well, that’s where IFTTT comes in, which can intervene to turn on your rooms with a lot parameter smartest.
You can also turn on and off the lights and some smart devices in your home through virtual buttons on the mobile phone, which is still a pending issue in many virtual assistants.
In this case, you could design the routine yourself, but we assure you that there are thousands and thousands of recipes already created and that you only have to activate them to start using them. Programming them is not complicated —it’s like a puzzle—, but you don’t need to make a single recipe.
Extra security features
uses motion detectors to start recording security cameras when they detect movement or when we leave home. Or, for example, receive a notification when you are not at home and your children return from school. You can make the recipes as complicated as you like, regardless of the native limitations of Google Assistant or Alexa.
Thermostats and air conditioning
You can turn your home heating on and off using a thermostat. But, with IFTTT, you can save it. Simply, activate an Applet that activates or deactivates the air conditioning when certain conditions are met. meteorological conditions. Weather data can be obtained from the Internet and not necessarily from a device located in your home.
other functions
From here, the limits are set by your imagination. If you have a garden, you can make an automatic irrigation thanks to IFTTT without having to invest too much money in an automatic irrigation system. You can also use this service to create complex routines, simultaneously use Google Assistant and Alexa or even turn off certain electronic devices when the price of electricity skyrockets.
