The Ultimate IFTTT Guide/ Use the Web's Most Powerful Tool Like A
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
! Copyright © 2017 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! The Ultimate IFTTT Guide: Use the Web’s Most Powerful Tool Like a Pro Written by Sandy Stachowiak Published November 2017. Read the original article here: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-ultimate-ifttt-guide-use- the-webs-most-powerful-tool-like-a-pro/ This ebook is the intellectual property of MakeUseOf. It must only be published in its original form. Using parts or republishing altered parts of this ebook is prohibited without permission from MakeUseOf.com. Copyright © 2017 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! Table of contents 1. Start with IFTTT 6 1.1 What is IFTTT Anyway? 6 1.2 Why Should I Use IFTTT? 6 1.3 What Can IFTTT Really Do For Me? 7 Applet #1 – Instagram Automatic Backup to Dropbox 7 Applet #2 – Save an Instagram Photo with a Specific Hashtag to Dropbox 8 2. How to Supercharge Your Time with IFTTT 9 2.1 What Are Services? 9 2.2 What Are Applets? 9 2.3 How Do I Create an Applet– A Quickstart Guide. 9 2.4 Can I Use Pre-Made Applets? 14 2.5 Now What? 16 3. The Cookbook: Which Applets Are Best? 16 3.1 The Top 10 Applets You Should Be Using Right Now 17 Applet #1 – Daily SMS Weather Forecast 17 Applet #2 – Wake Up Call 18 Applet #3 – Starred Emails in Gmail to Evernote 18 Applet #4 – NASA’s Image of the Day 19 Applet #5 – Get a Reminder SMS Before Events in Google Calendar 20 Applet #6 – Email For a Call to Find a Lost Phone 20 Applet #7 – Timed Daily Tweet 21 Applet #8 – Daily Wikipedia Article Sent to Feedly 22 Applet #9 – Foursquare History to Google Calendar 23 Applet #10 – IFTTT Updates Sent to Your Email 24 3.2 The Top 5 Applets for Saving Money 24 Applet #1 – Top Free Amazon Albums Sent to Email 25 Applet #2 – Automatic Email Alerts for New Craigslist Listings 25 Applet #3 – New Top Free eBooks for Kindle Sent to Email 26 Applet #4 – Get Reminded Before Rent Is Due 27 Applet #5 – Keep Tabs On Potentially Lucrative Stocks 27 3.3 The Top 5 Applets for Better Relationships 28 Applet #1 – Google Assistant 28 Applet #2 – Automatic Christmas Facebook Post 29 Applet #3 – New Contact Email Tracker 29 Applet #4 – Birthday Reminders 30 Applet #5 – Feed Buffer with Content from Google Alerts 30 Copyright © 2017 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! 3.4 The Top 5 Applets for Job Hunters 31 Applet #1 – Automatic Craigslist Email for New Jobs 31 Applet #2 – Evernote Voice Memos 32 Applet #3 – Keep Track of Important Craigslist Job Leads in Evernote 32 Applet #4 – Automatic Email Updates for New Jobs in Indeed 33 Applet #5 – SMS Alert When You Get a Job Offer 33 3.5 The Top 5 Applets to Automate Your Social Life 34 Applet #1 – Facebook Photos to Dropbox 34 Applet #2 – Tweets Your Facebook Status Updates 35 Applet #3 – Backup Contacts to Google Drive 35 Applet #4 – Automatic Tagged Photos to Dropbox 36 Applet #5 – Automatic Facebook Log Sent to Evernote 36 3.6 The Top 5 Applets for Tech Lovers 37 Applet #1 – Get MakeUseOf Posts Sent to Instapaper 37 Applet #2 – Voicemail to Email 38 Applet #3 – Get Free iPad Apps Sent to Email 38 Applet #4 – YouTube Favorites to Dropbox 39 Applet #5 – Dropbox Backup on Box 40 3.7 The Top 5 Applets for Music Lovers 40 Applet #1 – Free Amazon Music to Email 40 Applet #2 – SoundCloud Likes to Dropbox 41 Applet #3 – SoundCloud Likes to Evernote 42 Applet #4 – SoundCloud Favorites to Facebook 42 Applet #5 – SoundCloud Likes to Twitter 43 3.8 The Top 5 Applets for Photographers 43 Applet #1 – Back Up iOS Photos in Dropbox 44 Applet #2 – Instagrams Go to Facebook Automatically 44 Applet #3 – Instagram Archive on Evernote 45 Applet #4 – Instagrams Posted on Tumblr 45 Applet #5 – Tumblr Dropbox Screensaver 46 3.9 The Top 5 Applets for Professionals 46 Applet #1 – Attachments Saved to Dropbox 47 Applet #2 – Save Gmails to Evernote Selectively 47 Applet #3 – Twitter Tweets to LinkedIn 48 Applet #4 – Advanced Gmail Auto-Responder 49 Applet #5 – Recurring Trello Card 50 3.10 The Top 5 Applets for Parents 50 Applet #1 – Free Children’s eBooks Alert Via RSS or Automatic Evernote Log 50 Copyright © 2017 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! Applet #2 – Birthday Reminders as SMS 51 Applet #3 – Blooming Child News Updates 51 Applet #4 – Save Facebook Logs on Facebook to Dropbox and Save Memories 52 Applet #5 – Get Alerts for Ebay Gifts Automatically Via Twitter DM or SMS Message 53 3.11 The Top 5 Applets for News Junkies 53 Applet #1 – YouTube Favorite Channel Videos to Pocket 54 Applet #2 – Pocket Favorites to Evernote 54 Applet #3 – Pocket Items Are Sent to Instapaper 55 Applet #4 – Send Pocket Favorite as Tweets 55 Applet #5 – Automatically Add Instapaper Pages to a Kindle 56 4. Get the Mobile App 56 Applet #1 – Add a Remember The Milk Task for Missed Calls 57 Applet #2 – Get a Notification to Turn Off Wi-Fi 58 5. Disable Your Account or Applets 58 5.1 Disabling Your IFTTT Account 58 5.2 What to Do When You Want to Disable or Delete Applets 59 What Do You Use IFTTT For? 61 Copyright © 2017 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! If you have not heard about IFTTT, then this guide is for you. “If This Then That” is a free web-based service that gives you something better than the sum of its parts. The parts are the apps and devices you can connect together to create new experiences. Linden Tibbetts, Jesse Tane, and Alexander Tibbetts visualized their invention as a “digital duct tape”. In their first blog post, Linden Tibbetts said, The key to unlocking the creative potential of our existing digital tools might be to build a service that simplifies and consolidates the way those tools can be connected. The best thing about IFTTT? You don’t have to be a technological whizkid to use the automation. Most of the magic is already baked for you. Read on to discover all of its secrets. 1. Start with IFTTT 1.1 What is IFTTT Anyway? IFTTT is an automation service that will enable you to connect services so that, when something happens with one service, a trigger goes off and an action takes place automatically on the other. For example: let’s say that you are a photography fan who uses Instagram constantly throughout the day. You love taking photos with your mobile device, touching them up and sharing them for everyone to see. Your followers seem to love the photos, so you think that maybe you’d like to get a bit more serious about this whole photography endeavor. We’ll get to photography-specific examples before this introduction is over, but the uses certainly don’t stop with photography. In fact, I would recommend that you give IFTTT a try regardless of your walk of life. It’s why I’m outlining uses for everyone – from artists to students to professionals – in this guide. 1.2 Why Should I Use IFTTT? Most people nowadays spend hours in front of the computer for myriad reasons. Some of them like to watch videos, download music, read useful articles and do other fun activities. At the same time, using the Internet has increasingly become a part of the average person’s work life. Whatever the case may be for you, you will eventually ask yourself if there’s a way to do the more repetitive tasks automatically. This is where IFTTT comes into play. Using the tools laid out in this guide, you’ll be able to save enormous amounts of precious time that you can use as you see fit later on. Also, if you’re an employee who is looking to automate some of her work, this will allow you to do that without so much as breaking a sweat. Yes, IFTTT could give you an edge in your career as well! Copyright © 2017 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! 1.3 What Can IFTTT Really Do For Me? Throughout the course of this guide, you’ll find numerous examples of what IFTTT could do for you depending on what specific profession/activity you’re trying to streamline. For the sake of this explanation, we are going to continue with the aspiring photographer example. So, we’ve decided that photography could become an amazing hobby and who knows, maybe even become a full-time activity later on. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For right now I want to see how we can keep ourselves excited and inspired by our newly-found passion. Here are some photography-related hacks you can set up with IFTTT in about 5 minutes. Applet #1 – Instagram Automatic Backup to Dropbox The example: Imagine that you’re walking near a park. All of a sudden you spot a potential photography idea right in front of you. What do you do? You take out your mobile device, shoot with your Instagram app and use IFTTT to automatically save the shot to your Dropbox account. No manual selecting and manual uploading. Create beautiful images — IFTTT will take care of the upload in the background so that they are accessible on your computer later. Copyright © 2017 MakeUseOf. All Rights Reserved ®. ! Applet #2 – Save an Instagram Photo with a Specific Hashtag to Dropbox The example: Your photography is evolving, you’re getting a lot of fans and even more likes on your photos, but you will still need the inspiration to keep going.