Hey.
Ry Crist here.
And I'm gonna show you how to use IFTTT to get creative with home automation.
If you don't know what IFTTT is, IFTTT is a website that connects social media sites and online tools like Gmail, and Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram-- whatever you can think of.
It combines them in mix so that you could have one thing happen on one, and another thing happen as a result somewhere else.
Now, if that sounds confusing,
don't worry.
Just pull out your smartphone and download the app, IFTTT.
So, right from the start, as we pull the app up, we can see this really classy kinda animated design that shows us what it does and how it does it.
And it's really easy intuitive once you get a look at it, once you get your fingers on it.
One of the really cool things about IFTTT is that it's compatible not just with websites, but also with actual physical products.
And we've got two of them right here.
This is the Philips Hue light bulb and the Belkin WeMo motion detective switch.
Both of these have their own channels
on IFTTT.
So, you can say if the motion detector detects movement, then post this on Twitter.
Or if something happens on Facebook, change the lighting.
And if you combine them, you can do cool things like this.
Right here in the app, I can go to my list of recipes that I've turned on.
And I can hit the plus sign to create a new one.
What I'm gonna do is say that the IFTTT will be the motion detector switch I've got right here.
So, I scroll over.
There it is, right there-- the motion detector switch.
Select that.
Any time there is any new motion, then the result will be that the Philips Hue light is gonna change colors to something random.
Now, this is a pretty impractical and not terribly functional usage of it, but imagine at a party.
People moving around, the light keeps changing colors.
It might be kind of fun.
There are much more practical uses you can do, too.
Suppose you have a motion detector in your yard, and you wanna know if someone is prowling around your backyard
at night.
You can set it to change your lamp bright red if that's the case.
As you can see now, if I trigger the motion detector, the little blue light goes off.
Sure enough, in just a second or few, the lamp changes colors.
I can do it again and again and again, and it'll keep changing.
Now, remember.
You're not limited to just syncing your devices up with each other like we have here.
You can sync them up with websites online and tools online like Twitter, Facebook, Google Documents to create one.
Suppose every time the motion detector is triggered, you wanna have a new line put into a spreadsheet,
to keep track of who's coming and going in your house or something like that.
That's all doable.
If you can think of it, it's probably possible on IFTTT.
So, get creative and give it a shot.
Thanks for watching.
For CNET, I'm Ry Crist.
