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Beyond the Blueprint: IFTTT Shows IoT's True Potential
3 Aug
Summary
- IFTTT lets non-experts combine smart devices and online services.
- Users create custom 'recipes' for practical and quirky automation.
- IFTTT reveals unexpected uses beyond initial product design.
The Internet of Things (IoT) presents a challenge in predicting how users will connect devices and find novel applications. Services like IFTTT provide insight into these practical, clever, and sometimes unusual user-driven uses.
IFTTT functions as a user-friendly dashboard, enabling individuals without technical expertise to create 'recipes' by combining feeds from media, utilities, and wearables. This allows for experimentation with a wide array of technologies, making it easier for apps and devices to communicate.
Users can automate tasks such as backing up photos to the cloud or receiving alerts for available apartments. Advanced users can even link devices like Nest to automatically adjust home air conditioning when leaving work or trigger SMS alerts for detected smoke.
As noted by Anthony Townsend, author of 'Smart Cities,' platforms like IFTTT offer a fascinating look at user desires for IoT implementation, diverging from creators' original designs. This provides valuable feedback for engineers and product managers.
Unexpected combinations are emerging, such as receiving 'Yo' notifications for health alerts or automatically logging weight to GitHub. The integration with social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter further expands the potential for data collection and management in novel ways.
New content feeds, like one from the Sunlight Foundation for political transparency, are being added. Users have already devised recipes to change connected lights to pink when the President signs a bill, or to trigger robocalls when legislation is up for a vote, showcasing the diverse and sometimes humorous applications of IFTTT.
