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

[Take Flight]

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.

Yep, your head is right where mine is at. This stuff should be easy, and they already do it to some degree with the Do Not Disturb setting, not to mention the Reminders app which also can use your location. This should be a prime functionality of a "smart" phone.

Yes, it could be fairly tedious menus to setup depending on how complex you need something to be, but they could easily put it under a general banner of "Events" or some terminology and make it fairly straight forward to configure. For instance, your WiFi on-off functionality could be one such event that you setup.

So Apple could do this themselves, or if they ever allowed a settings API, or API access to iMessage or email, then IFTTT could accomplish these things with recipes.

 

[C DM]

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

Considering it was mainly aimed at enthusiasts and techies and not really something that's mainstream (at least not at first), it was a fine name, and was just fine with most people in those groups. As they are trying to go mainstream it makes some sense that they would simplify and go with something that's more catchy and easier for the more mainstream type of users.

 

[rekhyt]

...

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

I'm sure they will. They prototyped this feature using the built-in Reminders.app a while back (was it iOS 5 or iOS 6? Can't remember.).

They're probably currently working on minimising battery impact (I suspect it'll be a feature exclusive to iPhone 6S or 7: whichever phone has a bigger/better/more efficient battery.) at the moment, which is why they've not released this API to the developers.

I personally prefer this kind of 'controlled development' approach that Apple takes, towards customisation ('Extensions' such as third-party keyboards, and Notification Centre widgets).

 

[SolarShane]

All I want Apple to implement is a way to detect a missed call based on contacts, and the ability to send a text on a certain event, the missed call in this instance.

 

[sailmac]

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.

I keep the mute/silent switch enabled. During the day I have Settings > Sounds > Vibrate on Ring and Vibrate on Silent enabled. Thus the phone vibrates for calls, texts, emails, etc. At night the phone automatically goes into Do Not Disturb mode. It suppresses calls and message alerts, but it still vibrates for mail.

So, in order to completely silence the phone -- even in Do Not Disturb mode -- I have to go into Settings > Sound and disable Vibrate on Silent.

Indeed, would be easier if Apple enabled profiles or scripting automation.

 

[C DM]

I keep the mute/silent switch enabled. During the day I have Settings > Sounds > Vibrate on Ring and Vibrate on Silent enabled. Thus the phone vibrates for calls, texts, emails, etc. At night the phone automatically goes into Do Not Disturb mode. It suppresses calls and message alerts, but it still vibrates for mail.

So, in order to completely silence the phone -- even in Do Not Disturb mode -- I have to go into Settings > Sound and disable Vibrate on Silent.

Indeed, would be easier if Apple enabled profiles or scripting automation.

Pretty sure it shouldn't vibrate for mail in DND--only calls, if specially set to be allowed, could potentially go through and have an alert of some sort, but nothing else.

 

[Zxxv]

Pretty sure it shouldn't vibrate for mail in DND--only calls, if specially set to be allowed, could potentially go through and have an alert of some sort, but nothing else.

Mine does this ie doesn't make any noise or vibrate when set to - do not disturb. Nothing not a thing.

 

[japanime]

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

For me, it's actually gotten worse. I can't even turn my lights on and off in the app anymore without force-quitting and then restarting the app. Even then, it only works about 20 percent of the time.

A Philips employee on the Hue Facebook page has been trying to help me sort it out. No luck yet, but I do give him credit for trying.

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).

Thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately, it seems that Lightbow also doesn't have geofencing support, which for me is essential.

It's odd that you can't control sets of lights using IFTTT. I haven't had that problem — I've got two IFTTT recipes that control all six Hue lights in my home.

 

[Zxxv]

For me, it's actually gotten worse. I can't even turn my lights on and off in the app anymore without force-quitting and then restarting the app. Even then, it only works about 20 percent of the time.

A Philips employee on the Hue Facebook page has been trying to help me sort it out. No luck yet, but I do give him credit for trying.



Thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately, it seems that Lightbow also doesn't have geofencing support, which for me is essential.

It's odd that you can't control sets of lights using IFTTT. I haven't had that problem — I've got two IFTTT recipes that control all six Hue lights in my home.

Thats a big issue I have with Phillips HUE. No private support. Its all out in the open for everyone to see which is just great when your using your HUE bulbs as security lights to give the impression of being home. Its like they haven't put much thought into any of it. Last time I looked for a support link it led me on a merry go round of infinite swear words.

My app and widget works fine. App a bit slow but works. The widget I've voiced my opinion on this else where so won't repeat myself but it works.

 

[Unami]

it's a nice idea but very limited. i'd love to have more complex recipies. "if this and this or this then that". or "if this then that and that and that."
e.g.: one recipie to trigger a light pattern over time (holiday-no burglar-pattern) or: IF sunset AND ios location says, i'm home (OR someone else from my family) THEN turn on light AND heating.

 

[Unami]

It's odd that you can't control sets of lights using IFTTT. I haven't had that problem — I've got two IFTTT recipes that control all six Hue lights in my home.

can't find how to do that either. in ifttt i can only select individual lights or all lights together but not, say, a set of light 1,3 and 6. so, now to turn on my three hallway lights at sunset, i have to run three different recipies (which also don't work in sync)

 

[japanime]

Thats a big issue I have with Phillips HUE. No private support. Its all out in the open for everyone to see which is just great when your using your HUE bulbs as security lights to give the impression of being home. Its like they haven't put much thought into any of it. Last time I looked for a support link it led me on a merry go round of infinite swear words.

I used an anonymous Facebook account (one that is used to manage my company's Facebook "fan" page). But, yeah, you're correct. I've found that it's impossible to get private support through the Hue website.

can't find to do that either. in ifttt i can only select individual lights or all lights together but not, say, a set of light 1,3 and 6

Ah, I wasn't aware that IFTTT couldn't do subsets of lights — just all of them together (which is how I use it) or each one individually.

 

[Take Flight]

I'm sure they will. They prototyped this feature using the built-in Reminders.app a while back (was it iOS 5 or iOS 6? Can't remember.).

They're probably currently working on minimising battery impact (I suspect it'll be a feature exclusive to iPhone 6S or 7: whichever phone has a bigger/better/more efficient battery.) at the moment, which is why they've not released this API to the developers.

I personally prefer this kind of 'controlled development' approach that Apple takes, towards customisation ('Extensions' such as third-party keyboards, and Notification Centre widgets).

I hope you are right!

 

[Miabifilms]

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

I have a feeling that's exactly what the IFTTT folks are thinking with Do.

 

[shadowbird423]

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.

Your last sentence is why Apple will never implement this.

However, Auto Touch does exactly what you're looking for, but is only for jailbroken devices. It works really well. Thanks for reminding me to set up a script for the ADT app.

The larger point is that you shouldn't have to jailbreak to do stuff like this.

 

[ssspinball]

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.

As someone that's used the apps, it's a good thing then that these new "Do" apps from IFTTT have a Notification Center action button. Swipe down, trigger an action. That's much faster than finding and launching the app and, in my opinion, both faster and preferable to voice control.

I think adding voice control support would also be nice, for those that prefer that. I expect that will happen in time.

 

[roland.g]

As someone that's used the apps, it's a good thing then that these new "Do" apps from IFTTT have a Notification Center action button. Swipe down, trigger an action. That's much faster than finding and launching the app and, in my opinion, both faster and preferable to voice control.

I think adding voice control support would also be nice, for those that prefer that. I expect that will happen in time.

I would love Notification triggered actions, however, for the more complicated but repetitive tasks that I'd like to do and not just for the limited tasks from IFDO.

 

[apple_iBoy]

I haven't found IFTTT to useful, although I have tried to work with it several times (and always end up deleting it). Much of my frustration was the app's inability (or my lack of understanding) to set up more than one constraint. Like "turn my nest to 72 degrees, IF I pass through a geofence, AND if it's after 5 pm."

 

[Zxxv]

I would love Notification triggered actions, however, for the more complicated but repetitive tasks that I'd like to do and not just for the limited tasks from IFDO.

For that you'll need the enhanced version. IFIDOADODO

 

[jclardy]

Just tried out Do for the first time. The UI is quite annoying, having to click the button, then click the other button, then click the tiny recipe button to go back. It should just be a double tap on an action (Tap to select, tap again to confirm, which I assume is why they have two presses in the first place.)

The other problem is the latency, for controlling lights it is quite terrible, 20-30 seconds after I hit the button the light changes state.

And then my final, biggest complaint...only 3 actions? What? That isn't even enough to cover simple lighting tasks with Hue for a single room (On/off, dim, bright.)

IF suffers from the same issues, only worse as it only polls for changes every 15 minutes or so.

So basically the concept is great, but to be truly great it needs constant socket connections to its providers rather than polling and sending rest requests. For most everything that will just be too slow.

 

[ipedro]

For me, it's actually gotten worse. I can't even turn my lights on and off in the app anymore without force-quitting and then restarting the app. Even then, it only works about 20 percent of the time.

A Philips employee on the Hue Facebook page has been trying to help me sort it out. No luck yet, but I do give him credit for trying.

That doesn't appear to be due to the design of the app, as it's more of an individual problem that you're experiencing. I've been using Hue since it was launched a couple of years ago and as much as the UI has been ugly and not very forward thinking, I've never ever experienced a crash. Just last night, I was smiling in amazement at how fast it responds. I barely finish tapping the button and my entire home's lighting is changed.

I hope you get your problem fixed.

 

[sailmac]

Pretty sure it shouldn't vibrate for mail in DND--only calls, if specially set to be allowed, could potentially go through and have an alert of some sort, but nothing else.

Mine does this ie doesn't make any noise or vibrate when set to - do not disturb. Nothing not a thing.

Thanks for persuading me to go back and take a third look. I was wrong and I admit it.

I had Settings > Do Not Disturb > Silence > Only while iPhone is locked enabled.

I toggled it to Always and it behaves just as you described.