Create, manage recipes with IFTTT for iPhone
You can now automate your digital life from your iPhone using the official IFTTT app.
If This Then That (IFTTT) is a free service that helps you connect unrelated apps and services across the Web. As we've shown you in the past, you're able to get really creative with recipes.
On Thursday IFTTT released its official app, IFTTT for iPhone, for free in the App Store. Until today, the only way for users to create, edit and share recipes was by visiting IFTTT.com. With the app, users will have all of the same options and features found on the Web site, but in addition to the services integrated with the site, users can now find iPhone Contacts, Photos, and Reminders channels in IFTTT.
Adding these three channels to IFTTT is very compelling. No longer are you required to take action with a Web service to trigger an action, but you can now use local apps on your device to trigger a long list of actions.
The Photos trigger is especially intriguing. It's now possible to have IFTTT automatically upload screenshots to your Dropbox account, or have your Twitter profile picture changed every time you take a photo with the front camera on your iPhone. Should you keep your photos organized in albums on your iPhone, you can have IFTTT monitor a specific album and upload new photos to Flickr without you having to do any extra work.
With Contacts, you have can IFTTT send a "Nice to meet you!" e-mail to each new contact added on your iPhone. Reminders is able to monitor specific lists for new additions, or completed items and then take action.
The possibilities of using IFTTT with the native apps on an iPhone (or any mobile device for that matter) are only bound by creativity.
IFTTT for iPhone will also allow you to browse newly published and popular recipes, as well as edit and manage your personal recipes. You can also turn recipes on or off and enable receiving a notification on your device every time a recipe is triggered.
The first thing you'll notice when you launch the app is a timeline of when your recipes were triggered. Instead of having to guess and navigate to the site, you're now able to double check if a recipe is performing properly with just a few taps on your iPhone.
One feature you'll want to take advantage of is background syncing. By enabling background sync, the app will randomly check for new triggers and carry out a recipe if something is found. Without background sync enabled, you'll need to launch the app each time you want it to carry out a task (like uploading screenshots to Dropbox).
To enable background sync, tap on the settings gear in the top-right corner, then select the Sync Options button. From there toggle the Background Sync button. You'll notice the location indicator will be present going forward, which is required for the app to work in the background. I found in my testing enabling this didn't cause any noticeable battery drain.
I found with the app installed and having easy access to my account, I have started creating and using more recipes than I did when I had to rely on just the site, which I'm sure is exactly what the IFTTT team wants.
There are plans for an Android app, but there's no word on timing.
"="" rel="noopener nofollow" class="c-regularLink" target="_blank">Download IFTTT for iPhone.