IFTTT Lets You Set Price Forever

And from IFTTT expands their offering, pricing, with demonstrations and a contest.

....Set your price, forever

You spoke, we listened. No more confusion on the length of IFTTT Pro pricing. Set your price before October 7th and we’ll honor it, forever.

Watch Jeff create
Take a look at Pro for yourself. Watch Jeff, product leader extraordinaire, create a multi-step Applet with queries and logic.  ... 

Applet competition
Win big. Create an Applet using Pro tools, document and submit it. Most creative, impressive Applet wins $500.   ... ' 

IFTTT Pro Announced

Just received today, always liked IFTTT, used it some, the advances look interesting

Today we’re launching IFTTT Pro,  https://ifttt.com/pro  a subscription designed to help you build advanced Applets that go way beyond IF THIS THEN THAT.

Pro includes an introductory set your own price subscription, and now joins our standard free-forever plan.
Pro launches with many of your most requested features:

Multi-step Applets
Queries and conditional logic
Multiple actions
Faster Applet execution

With Pro you can create sophisticated Applets that can query data from multiple sources before triggering multiple actions.
Because Pro will evolve in response to your feedback, we wanted to provide some payment flexibility. The introductory set your own price subscription allows you to choose your monthly payment for the first year of Pro. This special offer expires in 4 weeks, on Wednesday, October 7th.

Upgrade to Pro .... 
Thanks for your patience and ongoing support. I look forward to seeing what you build.
Sincerely,   Linden Tibbets,  Founder and CEO  @ltibbets

Subscriptions and IFTTT

During the earliest days of looking at behavior in the smart home, we examined subscription methods.   And talked to Spotify when they emerged.   Now here an upcoming webinar on subscriptions as a tactic, and the use of IFTTT.

Webinar on  June 18, 2020, 10AM PT / 1PM ET

Winning the subscription economy (sign up for webinar)     
How Dropbox, Spotify, and Trello use third-party integrations to drive paid subscriptions

In this webinar you will learn:

Why successful subscription-based companies use integrations to optimize premium conversions
How subscription services decide which integrations to prioritize and why

The different integration strategies of 3 innovative brands

Subscription services with freemium pricing know that increasing the value of their product offerings is the most predictable way to create stickiness, drive premium conversions, and retain paid users. But, building new features can be time-consuming and inefficient.

Join IFTTT Founder and CEO, Linden Tibbets, as he reviews the strategies of 3 innovative companies — Dropbox, Trello, and Spotify — to understand how they leverage integrations to scale their products and succeed in the subscription economy.

Linden_Tibbets
IFTTT Founder and CE
Linden Tibbets is Founder and CEO of IFTTT, the essential integration and discovery platform for businesses to continuously connect, grow and maximize the value of their customers.

IFTTT and Brands in the Smart Home

Recording of yesterdays Webinar

 ... How smart home companies decide which integrations to prioritize and why successful smart home companies optimize their integration strategies for scalability,  The different integration strategies of 3 innovative smart home companies

IFTTT needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For information on how to unsubscribe, as well as our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, please review our Privacy Policy.

Successful smart home companies like iRobot, LIFX, and Ring understand the importance of third-party integrations for driving product adoption and engagement. But in order to do so, smart home companies must navigate the overwhelming number of apps and devices to determine which integrations matter most to their customers and their business.

Join IFTTT Founder and CEO, Linden Tibbets, as he reviews the integration strategies of 3 smart home companies to understand how integrations help them scale their products in the smart home and beyond.

Linden_Tibbets,  IFTTT Founder and CEO
Linden Tibbets is Founder and CEO of IFTTT, the essential integration and discovery platform for businesses to continuously connect, grow and maximize the value of their customers. ... '

Brands Winning in The Smart Home: Webinar

Of interest, will be attending, register at the link.

Webinar:May 21, 1PM ET    How top brands win the smart home
Integration strategies from iRobot, LIFX, and Ring 

In this webinar you will learn:

How smart home companies decide which integrations to prioritize and why

Why successful smart home companies optimize their integration strategies for scalability

The different integration strategies of 3 innovative smart home companies

Successful smart home companies like iRobot, LIFX, and Ring understand the importance of third-party integrations for driving product adoption and engagement.  But in order to do so, smart home companies must navigate the overwhelming number of apps and devices to determine which integrations matter most to their customers and their business.

Join IFTTT Founder and CEO, Linden Tibbets, as he reviews the integration strategies of 3 smart home companies to understand how integrations help them scale their products in the smart home and beyond.

Linden Tibbets
IFTTT Founder and CEO
Linden Tibbets is Founder and CEO of IFTTT, the essential integration and discovery platform for businesses to continuously connect, grow and maximize the value of their customers.

Webinar from iRobot, IFTTT on the Smart Home

Recently signed up for this and missed it, of interest: 

Checking in to see if you watched the replay of our smart home webinar featuring iRobot.

It features iRobot's CTO, Chris Jones, talking in-depth about the future of the smart home, and how they were able to solve the dual challenges of customer experience and integrations by working with IFTTT.

Smart Home hardware companies are placing increased strategic importance on software services to address future opportunities.
Join IFTTT Founder and CEO, Linden Tibbets and iRobot Chief Technology Officer, Chris Jones, as they discuss the integration choices Smart Home companies face and the future of the Smart Home.

In this webinar we discuss:

The ongoing transition of hardware companies to software services companies
Connecting Smart Home products to other products in the Smart Home and beyond
Direct integrations, Developer platforms and iPaaS
IFTTT Data Insights – Integration trends in the Smart Home
Why customer experience will ultimately decide .... 

Best, Skyler
Skyler Saulovich, Sales at IFTTT ... "

Zapier for Automating Workflows

Had looked at this some time ago, interesting approach.

Connect Your Apps and Automate Workflows
Easy automation for busy people. Zapier moves info between your web apps automatically, so you can focus on your most important work.
More Than 1,500 Apps, Better Together

Stick with the tools that work for you. Zapier connects more web apps than anyone, and we add new options every week. We integrate with apps such as Facebook Lead Ads, Slack, Quickbooks, Google Sheets, Google Docs & many more!

Anyone Can Build Workflows With A Few Clicks
Our editor was made for do-it-yourself automation. Set up Zaps without developer help.  Enrich your workflows with Built-In Apps

Zapier's Built-in Apps come with every account. Use them to create powerful workflows without using separate services.

FREE FOREVER
Start with the basics as long as you need. Grab free tools that help you do more with your most-used apps.

Build one-to-one connections with your apps
Automate basic tasks
Get help from our top-notch support team

PREMIUM PLANS
Get premium tools to build advanced workflows. Our Premium Plans give you the tools to automate more, so you can work less. ...... " 

Google Changes its Smart Device Cooperation

Saw evidence of this when the ability to link with IFTTT ended, now a much broader set of changes will remove some of the cooperative capabilities among smart home systems.  From the customers perspective would like to see much more interaction, but there is much competition for the space.    Also, will Google customers be upset at this change?    More so I think than at Amazon. 

Been considerable speculation as to what this means to smart homes and assistants in general.  Still following the difference between Google and Amazon, in the sense that Google is seeking deeper AI, and Amazon is providing a means to make it easy to construct many narrower skills.    Amazon at this point is pushing assistants in industry and  and business.  But Google has a broad range of business infrastructure already in place.    Much conversation going on regarding this change.

Google is ending its “Works with Nest” system. Here’s what that means for you   By Tyler Lacoma  in Digitaltrends

A series of announcements at the Google I/O 2019 conference will utterly change how the company approaches smart device platforms. This is especially important for the “Works with Nest” program — which is being shut down.

Does that mean that your non-Google smart devices will lose compatibility with Nest devices? Yes, it does. But the issue is also more complicated than that. Let’s talk about this big Google change, why the company is taking such a risk with consumers, and what it means for your own smart home. ... " 

Gmail Functions will Soon Stop in IFTTT

This is very unfortunate, most of the functionality I used  in IFTTT sensed Gmail.   Apparently for security reasons?   It shows you how you cannot rely on other architectures in such systems.   Will follow to see if anything can be fixed, or other services can be used.  Will this seriously damage the IFTTT method?

Most IFTTT applets using Gmail will break this month   By Corbin Davenport

IFTTT is an extremely powerful automation tool that combines hundreds of different online services. You can make your Hue lights flash when your phone gets a notification, save your liked YouTube videos to a Google Sheets document, and much more. However, if you make heavy use of the Gmail service in IFTTT, you might have some adjusting to do.

In October of last year, Google made a series of changes to the Gmail API, in response to criticism it received about data access from third-party apps. New restrictions were enforced on applications using Gmail data, and some had to undergo security assessments.  .... "

Assistant Infrastructure

Good piece on assistant infrastructure.   Much broader than just the question asked in the title.   From my own experience, since nearly the beginning of assistants,  start simple with one, and build others in.  depending on need, or your interest in the concept.  Read about skills/actions to extend capabilities.    Use IFTTT.   Read about the experience of others.  Good to note that the investment of a single device works,  since it can provide you with a vast variety streamed music more efficiently than any other way.

How many smart speakers do you need in your home?
As always, it depends.

in Wirecutter, @wirecutter via Engadget

Whether you're already one of the 20 percent of American adults who own a voice-controlled smart speaker or you're still on the fence about investing in an Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant device or an Apple HomePod, you might be wondering just how many of these intelligently attentive devices you'll need. A smart speaker can offer voice-controlled convenience throughout your home—but only if it can hear you.

The number of speakers you should buy depends on what kind of home you live in, and where and when you'll need your voice assistant to hear you. We have a few suggestions, depending on whether you want to build a smart-home setup, to listen to music and podcasts, to keep in touch with family and friends, or to use a digital assistant to boost your productivity. If you plan to buy multiple smart speakers, we recommend staying in the same family—although you could set up an Alexa-based speaker in one part of the house and a Google Assistant device somewhere else, you'd probably end up forgetting which platform has your to-do lists and which one controls the lights, or you'd have to do lots of redundant setup to get your smart home working with both platforms.  .... " 

January IFTTT

Good new stuff on the latest IFTTT newsletter,  especially with regard to the support of voice assistants.   Always something interesting there,  and have implemented a few examples on my own.  I am a fan. Still think there is something missing regards combining both a stream of data and programmatic approach to delivering value.    And even sharing data?

What is IFTTT  (If This Then That)?   They write:    " .... A world that works for you.  IFTTT is the free way to get all your apps and devices talking to each other. Not everything on the internet plays nice, so we're on a mission to build a more connected world. .... " 

New IFTTT Functions for Assistants and Home

A number of new and interesting IFTTT  (If This Then That) functionalities for the smart home.  I always explore these offerings.   They are free.   Some new interactions that link things like doorbell pushes and multiple step 'scenes'.   Also many examples of  logging information.     A pointer to a future where there will be many selectable skills aka actions that improve the smart home by using its data.  Everyone who has assistants should explore these possibilities.

 For a number of Smart Home assistants.

 For the Ring Doorbell and connected smarthome systems.

And many more.

Sonos Links Music for Assistants with IFTTT

Makes lots of sense.   I experimented with the detailed music stream that IFTTT captures to look at something like this.  Right now most assistants watch your music listening and can recommend music based on that.   Linking skills to specific choices is also possible, but are the companies involved too worried about their music libraries?   Seems to be too many restriction in skill/action construction.  Below is still in Beta.

Sonos IFTTT recipes let your smart home control your music
It can lower your music volume when someone rings the doorbell.   Steve Dent, @stevetdent in Engadget

Last month, Sonos promised to open up its API to third-party companies, and it's off to a great start by partnering with IFTTT. IFTTT lets you automate smart home devices like door locks, thermostats and lights, which opens up some interesting possibilities. For instance, you can have Sonos play your radio station of choice when you unlock your door, program Hue light colors to playlists, or play a specific song when your Dominoes pizza goes out for delivery (like, I don't know, William Tell Overture).  .... "

Another look at the IFTTT Platform

Remain intrigued by the broader potential for using IFTTT as a broader intelligence platform.  Anyone looked at that?  An editable rule base?  Driven learning from IFTTT data?  What would it take to test?    Have used IFTTT since its inception.  Here is a new overview.  The type and breadth of clients is interesting.    Easy to set up a test of the idea with a broad view of data. Here is their latest overview:

IFTTT Platform
One connection, 
countless possibilities ... 

Try now
There’s no need to build 3rd party integrations in-house when you can integrate with IFTTT.
Give your users immediate access to over 600 apps, devices, and brands  ... " 

IFTTT Platform

Continuing to follow IFTTT.   How can you connect a stream of data from a device, app or brand to generate data and alerts for your business?  The idea is here:

https://platform.ifttt.com/ 

One connection, 
countless possibilities

There’s no need to build 3rd party integrations in-house when you can integrate with IFTTT.
Give your users immediate access to over 600 apps, devices, and brands. ... " 

AT&T Builds a Dash-Like Button

Always thought there was a place for simple buttons to link to IOT networks, to make requests of many kinds, beyond just ordering something.   Why doesn't IFTTT have something like this?  This seems to be that,    The way I read it,  although provided through AWS,  it is not an Amazon Echo infrastructure thing.  Will be interesting if that  changes.

AT&T's Dash-like smart button doesn't need WiFi
It's also not pre-programmed like Amazon's one-click device.
By Mariella Moon, @mariella_moon in Engadget

AT&T has launched a new product called LTE-M button, which allows users to place an order online in one click. Yes, it sounds just like Amazon Dash -- in fact, it's powered by Amazon Web Services -- but since it's connected to AT&T's LTE-M network, it doesn't need a WiFi connection to work. AT&T's button was also designed more for businesses than homes and individuals. It's not pre-programmed like Amazon's Dash buttons are, and companies can program it to accomplish tasks that fit their needs. .... "

More details from AT&T

Where IFTTT is Going

Looking for a business model, and things to attract businesses.   I suggest that they think of how they can introduce business rules and machine learning to add to their capabilities.  Find real value in the streams of data.   By combining data with public data,  creating new data, delivering metadata and constructing analytic results of value.

IFTTT’s Latest Plan: Helping Legacy Companies Take On Tech Giants, 
The handy automation service has years of experience and millions of users. Now all it needs is a business model.   By Jared Newman in Fastcompany

A brick-and-mortar powerhouse like grocery giant Kroger might not appreciate being called a “legacy” enterprise, but that’s the reality IFTTT is pitching as it tries to turn its popular-but-geeky internet switchboard service into a viable business.

IFTTT, which launched in 2011, can connect products that aren’t designed to work together. You might use the service to automatically log Spotify songs in a Google Drive spreadsheet, sync your Instagram photos to Dropbox, or change the color of your smart light bulbs if it’s going to rain that day. (Its name is an acronym for “if this, than that,” a nod to the kinds of conditional statements used by programmers.) .... " 

Alexa Releases Skills Blueprint

OK, easy, and may kick up the Skill count.   But will it increase quality?   No code involved.   It might be better to make it easier to create plug-in capable micro skill-services that can be readily shared.  Not as easy,  as it depends on architecture to make that do-able.    Also note the implication that you might want to create your own private set of skills.  .Say for your home, family, company.   I like that idea.  Perhaps starting from a provided template.  Reaches closer to IFTTT involvement?

Amazon’s new ‘Alexa Blueprints’ let anyone create custom Alexa skills and responses   By Sarah Perez   @sarahintampa in TechCrunch.   

Amazon this morning is introducing “Alexa Blueprints,” a new way for any Alexa owner to create their own customized Alexa skills or responses, without needing to know how to code. The idea is to allow Alexa owners to create their own voice apps, like a trivia game or bedtime stories, or teach Alexa to respond to questions with answers they design – like “Who’s the best mom in the world?,” for example.

You could also create a skill that includes helpful information for the babysitter, which could be triggered by the command, “Alexa, open My Sitter,” Amazon suggests.

“Alexa Skill Blueprints is an entirely new way for you to teach Alexa personalized skills just for you and your family,” explained Steve Rabuchin, Vice President, Amazon Alexa, in a statement about the launch. “You don’t need experience building skills or coding to get started—my family created our own jokes skill in a matter of minutes, and it’s been a blast to interact with Alexa in a totally new and personal way.”  .... " 

Cortana Gets IFTTT

Was wondering why this was taking so long.  Crucial not only because it links in data that can be used, but also shows some of the possibilities for future connections.  Now all the major assistant players link to IFTTT.   Have successfully used it for several tests.

Microsoft’s Cortana is finally on IFTTT  in Engadget

Microsoft keeps striving to find Cortana a place in the crowded smart assistant market, and despite losing a minor feature, it's still adding functionality. Today, Cortana added IFTTT, and launched with interactions to link it up with 550 apps and devices. ... " 

Shazam for Data on Music Behavior

Have been recording my music listening habits via IFTTT,  and smart speakers and then analyzing it over time.   As a means of predictively understanding this over time, interest and context?   Could this mean the creative invention of new music based on demand?  So the acquisition of Shazam by Apple struck a chord in me.  The ability to detect creative context is a way to think about Shazam.

Apple has acquired Shazam
The acquisition could lay the groundwork for new music and AR features. .... 

In ArsTechnica, by Samuel Axon