A big thanks to our friend Wendy Morelli for being our first GUEST BLOGGER! Busy parents need all the help they can get when it comes to keeping their families organized and Wendy has a great app review to share with all of you! Take a look, give it a try and leave us a comment on how it helped with your schedule!
IFTTT for iOS Automates Your Everyday
Online Tasks
I love my smart phone
aka iPhone. Anyone that knows me knows I can’t go anywhere without it. But in
my opinion, what makes my phone “smart” are the apps that transforms my device
into so much more than just for talking and texting. I’m a big fan of
productivity apps, it’s like having my very own personal assistant by my side
24/7. Though there are many fantastic apps available, the one I want to share
with you is the IFTTT iOS app affectionately known as “If This Then That”. This app will change the way you manage your digital daily
life on platforms like social media, calendar and photos.
Simply put, IFTTT lets you automate online tasks. So if
you’re a big Etsy fan, you can tell IFTTT to send a text message each time your
favourite Etsy shop has a new item. If backing up your photos is important, IFTTT
can save photos taken from your iPhone to Dropbox. Pretty cool, right?
IFTTT currently
has 71 web “channels” such as Dropbox, Etsy, WordPress, Evernote, Twitter,
Instagram and Facebook. IFTTT started as a web based service but with the
addition of the app (Android to come), smart phone users can now create “recipes”
using apps directly from their device. Therefore, those with iPhones now have
access to 3 additional channels, Contacts, Photos and Reminders.
To create a recipe
like saving Instagram photos to Dropbox, you’ll need to set up trigger and
action channels. The trigger channel in this example is Instagram and the action
channel is Dropbox. Put them together and you got yourself a recipe. For you
creative types, you can create your own recipes or if you prefer, you can use
one of the many that others have shared.
Before the recipe can go “live”, you’ll need to first activate the
required channels first.
Here are more
examples of what you can automate with IFTTT.
·
Each
time you add a new contact, add to Google Calendar or Evernote to serve as a
reminder as to when you met.
·
Send a
follow up “hello, nice to have met you” email each time you add a new contact.
·
Text every
time Instagram user posts to Instagram (useful to keep tabs on what your
tween/teen is posting).
·
Download
Facebook photos you’re tagged in to Dropbox.
·
Send
IFTTT a text message and have it call you (great for escaping bad dates).
·
Email
family or friends when photo(s) has been added to a specific album (that way
you only share what you want grandma to see).
·
Post
iOS photos located in a specific album directly to Facebook.
·
Use
Siri to add tasks to iOS Reminders and IFTTT can add to Evernote.
·
Create
Google docs spreadsheet of your every tweet.
As a tech geek, I
have to say I’m most excited about recipes that can turn lights on or off with
a simple text, turn lights on automatically at sunset or even have the lights
blink when your favourite team starts a game. You’ll need to purchase either the
Belkin WeMo Switch or the Belkin Light Switch in order to use these recipes, but how neat is that?
As you can see, whether
you’re an entrepreneur, parent, teacher, blogger or sports enthusiast, IFTTT
can help anyone cut down some of the mundane tasks and even let you have some
fun at the same time.
Wendy Morelli is an app-obsessed mom of 2 who can't get
enough of her smart phone. Read all about her favourite app picks on her
blog AppHipMom.
Wendy’s latest
adventure Tweenhood, is an online magazine for Canadian parents raising
tweens. Follow her on Twitter at @tweenhood and @AppHipMom.
