IFTTT Launches Trio of New Apps Alongside a Rebrand of Original iOS App

[MacRumors]

Popular web service IFTTT today announced the introduction of three new apps - Do Button, Do Note, and Do Camera - to coincide with the rebranding of the original IFTTT iOS app into IF. The company says these events mark its "transition from a standalone service into a true product company."

IFTTT hopes to empower its users with the introduction of the series of "Do" apps, allowing them more control over their favorite products and applications by presenting a detailed and customizable set of tools "to pick and choose the features they use most often and turn them into their own, personalized, one-tap app."

"IFTTT's mission has always been to empower people with creative control over the services and devices they use every day," said Linden Tibbets, co-founder and CEO at IFTTT. "Our latest product, Do, introduces a simpler and more personal type of Recipe - one that runs with just a tap of a button."

The new Do series continues IFTTT's "If this, then that" functionality with "Recipes," which require a "Channel" (an app) and "Title" (a command) to bring deep customization into each of the three apps. Do Button, for example, showcases "lightning fast access" to customized Recipes created by each user, courtesy of a widget available to install in the iOS Notification Center. Recipes can include anything from custom Nest settings to interacting with a set of Philips Hue bulbs.

Do Camera follows in the vein of instant connectivity to various services within one app, allowing users to create Recipes that upload photos to specific Facebook albums or even match the colors of a photo to a room's Hue lighting. Same goes for Do Note, which allows instant note-taking to control apps like Twitter, Evernote, and Mail.

These new apps debut alongside IFTTT's rebrand into IF, the company saying the two announcements pivot it from being a single-product focused business and pushes it into the future with multiple products and services, "with more on the way."

Do Button [Direct Link], Do Camera [Direct Link], and Do Note [Direct Link], alongside the new IF app [Direct Link], can be downloaded from the App Store for free.

Article Link: IFTTT Launches Trio of New Apps Alongside a Rebrand of Original iOS App

 

[Traverse]

I've fallen in love with Workflow, but I'm willing to give some of these a chance.

 

[Jessica Lares]

I can't seem to download them. Hopefully the widgets aren't getting them in trouble.

Yeah, I love Workflow too. Although I'm having a few issues with it at the moment.

 

[kevinatifttt]

I can't seem to download them.

The App Store should catch up soon; thanks for your patience!

 

[Keane16]

I've fallen in love with Workflow, but I'm willing to give some of these a chance.

Yep, Workflow is awesome.

But definitely going to try these.

 

[Take Flight]

Too bad iOS is not open enough to do some of the really cool automations that IFTTT is capable of that are accessible to andrioid devices.

iOS 8 helped, but doing things like triggered text messaging and automated settings would be great.

 

[ipedro]

This is awesome! It'll realize the concept of having an iPad Mini on the wall to control your smart home. Just set up a series of apps for the lights and actions you want and keep them on the home screen.

My only regret is having bought the Wink Relay which has never worked well.

 

[japanime]

I would love to see the IFTTT folks develop a standalone app to control Hue lights. The official Philips app is absolutely terrible.

 

[ipedro]

I would love to see the IFTTT folks develop a standalone app to control Hue lights. The official Philips app is absolutely terrible.

It's gotten much much better. With the Notifications Centre widget, you don't even have to go into the app anymore.

I didn't initially buy into the recipes concept used by Hue. Like most people, I just wanted quick access to turning on/off my lights and changing their colour individually like I've done all my life. But as I added more lights to my home (I have 20), recipes made so much more sense. Rather than control individual lights, I want to control moods for different occasions.

I'd like a cleaner looking Hue app but other than aesthetics, it works really well.

 

[nostaws]

I love ifttt. Glad they are renaming it. I could never remember if it was iffft or ifttt, or how many t's.

I use it (among other things) to send me a text message anytime a craigslist posting pops up with a specific cell phone number.

 

[ipedro]

I love ifttt. Glad they are renaming it. I could never remember if it was iffft or ifttt, or how many t's.

I use it (among other things) to send me a text message anytime a craigslist posting pops up with a specific cell phone number.

lol How can you not remember? It stands for "IF This Then That"

 

[Zxxv]

IFTTT is about as useful as a paper bag in a fire. I get suggestion recipes sent everyday and the only one I found of use and thought that's cool was something about "if my bike gets stolen and appears online email me"

And I've had **** loads of recipes sent to me.IFTTT is Useless to me.

 

[Jessica Lares]

lol How can you not remember? It stands for "IF This Then That"

I always think it's ittt.

The apps are working for me now. Very nice!

 

[roland.g]

I started using IFTTT a few weeks ago, and it is ok in what it can do. But very limited, mostly because of the iOS ecosystem.

The truth is it hints at what Apple can and should be doing. And that is integrating Siri with custom configurable actions. Think of the things you do many many times a day or week on your phone and if you could speed those repetitive processes up with voice commands.

Apple needs to introduce Siri scripts. Let you record commands and have your phone or iPad check those commands before going out to the servers. Otherwise you could introduce a keyword command that triggers the local search.

What I mean is that what if you could record the phrase, "Arm Security" and likewise "Disarm Security". Then record the process of launching your Alarm.com or ADT app, and setting your home security system. Essentially a script of the taps on your screen that perform an action. You can already tell Siri to launch an app, but not to do things within the app.

You'd be able to walk out your front door, hold down the home button and say "Arm Security" and have your alarm system set without having to launch the app, have it log in, and set the alarm.

I have a Yamaha receiver that has the A/V controller app. Recording scripts for that I could change the input from Satellite, to Apple TV, to game console simply by recording the command "Switch to Satellite", "Switch to Apple TV", "Switch to PS3". Then record the process on your iPhone and use Siri voice commands to engage the actions. Set another one for "Mute Receiver".

There are countless other things we do that require multiple steps by launching an app, and several taps but that are always the same, and that we do with significant frequency.

Apple needs to bring together the convenience of Siri and the enable customizable recorded scripts. At that point, who cares about HomeKit if you have voice triggered actions.

 

[subjonas]

I could see Do Button adding lots of functionality to the Apple Watch.

 

[C DM]

IFTTT is about as useful as a paper bag in a fire. I get suggestion recipes sent everyday and the only one I found of use and thought that's cool was something about "if my bike gets stolen and appears online email me"

And I've had **** loads of recipes sent to me.IFTTT is Useless to me.

The last sentence and the last word in it are basically the most important parts in all of that.

 

[ericg301]

I've yet to find a use case for IFTTT (which has always been a TERRIBLE name), Workflow or Launch Center Pro. But that's just me.

 

[Take Flight]

I started using IFTTT a few weeks ago, and it is ok in what it can do. But very limited, mostly because of the iOS ecosystem.

The truth is it hints at what Apple can and should be doing. And that is integrating Siri with custom configurable actions. Think of the things you do many many times a day or week on your phone and if you could speed those repetitive processes up with voice commands.

Apple needs to introduce Siri scripts. Let you record commands and have your phone or iPad check those commands before going out to the servers. Otherwise you could introduce a keyword command that triggers the local search.

What I mean is that what if you could record the phrase, "Arm Security" and likewise "Disarm Security". Then record the process of launching your Alarm.com or ADT app, and setting your home security system. Essentially a script of the taps on your screen that perform an action. You can already tell Siri to launch an app, but not to do things within the app.

You'd be able to walk out your front door, hold down the home button and say "Arm Security" and have your alarm system set without having to launch the app, have it log in, and set the alarm.

I have a Yamaha receiver that has the A/V controller app. Recording scripts for that I could change the input from Satellite, to Apple TV, to game console simply by recording the command "Switch to Satellite", "Switch to Apple TV", "Switch to PS3". Then record the process on your iPhone and use Siri voice commands to engage the actions. Set another one for "Mute Receiver".

There are countless other things we do that require multiple steps by launching an app, and several taps but that are always the same, and that we do with significant frequency.

Apple needs to bring together the convenience of Siri and the enable customizable recorded scripts. At that point, who cares about HomeKit if you have voice triggered actions.

Those are all great ideas, but you're still talking about things that would require you to have first thought about what you want to have happen, then physically tell the computer what to do on an ad-hoc basis. What about making those things happen automatically?

What IFTTT is great for is complete hands-off automation, and frankly that should be even simpler.

With only 2 variables, time and/or location, our phones/devices should automatically be able to do anything that would otherwise require physical user input.

Arriving at work? Put my phone on silent, text my significant other.

Friend's birthday next week? Automatically send them a "Happy Birthday" text at 9:30 am on their birthday.

This should be simple stuff once Apple opens up the right hooks.

 

[roland.g]

Those are all great ideas, but you're still talking about things that would require you to have first thought about what you want to have happen, then physically tell the computer what to do on an ad-hoc basis. What about making those things happen automatically?

What IFTTT is great for is complete hands-off automation, and frankly that should be even simpler.

With only 2 variables, time and/or location, our phones/devices should automatically be able to do anything that would otherwise require physical user input.

Arriving at work? Put my phone on silent, text my significant other.

Friend's birthday next week? Automatically send them a "Happy Birthday" text at 9:30 am on their birthday.

This should be simple stuff once Apple opens up the right hooks.

Yes unfortunately there was an Android app I heard about years ago called LocateMe or something like that that you could set "profiles" for based on location. Arrive home, turn off bluetooth, turn on wifi. Arrive at work, turn on silent, etc. There has never been a App Store app that can do that to my knowledge, probably because of what it accesses, and likewise, iOS doesn't have that built in. I'd love it if when I got it my car and my iPhone paired with it, the phone automatically turned off WiFi and turned it back on when I left the vehicle. That could be an easy setting. However, stuff like that clogs up the menus on the OS and isn't the kind of direction Apple tends to go with their simplicity model.

 

[urbanslaughter1997]

Those "Do apps" look a lot like the apple watch. I think they're looking ahead.

 

[Gizmotoy]

I would love to see the IFTTT folks develop a standalone app to control Hue lights. The official Philips app is absolutely terrible.

Try Lightbow. It's what the Philips app should have been. The only negative is it lacks widgets, which are being worked on.

My main problem with IFTTT and the Hue are that lights are all treated individually, so if I want to do something on a set of lights I have to make a nearly-identical recipe, one for each individual light, and there's no guarantee their triggers will be anything close to synchronized (can be off by as much as 15 minutes).

 

[sailmac]

I was optimistic about Do Button and installed it on my iPhone today. After a few minutes I deleted it.

Apple hasn't enabled enough hooks into iOS for IFTTT to do want I want -- namely to make up for Apple's lack of profiles in iOS.

For example at a certain time of day I want iOS to disable sounds on the device, and then at another time of day enable sounds. Every night I tap, scroll, tap, tap, tap, Home. Every morning I tap, scroll, tap, tap, tap, Home. Ideally iOS would let me set and forget. Next best would be for IFTTT to let me accomplish this with one button.

But, I suppose if Apple ever gets to the point of enabling iOS with this kind of functionality, I won't need an IFTTT recipe to execute it.

The rest of my life does not involve the sites and actions that IFTTT triggers. I can see how it might be a good match for other people, though.

I second the notion above for iOS to provide Automator or Applescript capability. I get juiced just thinking about it, and disappointed because I realize that if Apple were going to do it they probably would have done it by now.

 

[C DM]

I was optimistic about Do Button and installed it on my iPhone today. After a few minutes I deleted it.

Apple hasn't enabled enough hooks into iOS for IFTTT to do want I want -- namely to make up for Apple's lack of profiles in iOS.

For example at a certain time of day I want iOS to disable sounds on the device, and then at another time of day enable sounds. Every night I tap, scroll, tap, tap, tap, Home. Every morning I tap, scroll, tap, tap, tap, Home. Ideally iOS would let me set and forget. Next best would be for IFTTT to let me accomplish this with one button.

But, I suppose if Apple ever gets to the point of enabling iOS with this kind of functionality, I won't need an IFTTT recipe to execute it.

The rest of my life does not involve the sites and actions that IFTTT triggers. I can see how it might be a good match for other people, though.

I second the notion above for iOS to provide Automator or Applescript capability. I get juiced just thinking about it, and disappointed because I realize that if Apple were going to do it they probably would have done it by now.

You can do that (although and some more) with Do Not Disturb, or at least a single flip of the side mute/silent switch. At least as far as all that tapping goes. But I certainly get what you are saying in a more general sense.

 

[teslo]

no one at their team decided IFTTT is an awful, awful name for... anything?

 

[Zxxv]

no one at their team decided IFTTT is an awful, awful name for... anything?

I guess they have now. They are calling it the Do Do app. I think it sounds a little **** but what do I know haha