IFTTT (If This Then That) launched a new pro tier today. Since the beginning, you could create and use free applets that performed simple automation tasks, like turning your lights on at sunset. Now IFTTT Pro will expand that capability with new complexity. But the old free tier takes a hit—you can only create three applets for free.
Smart homes are sometimes a convoluted mess of disparate hardware from a myriad of manufacturers. Getting everything to talk to each other is easier now than it used to be, but one of the original and longest-lasting solutions has been IFTTT.
With IFTTT you create simple little applets that perform a task for you. Everything from turning playing music on your smart speakers when you unlock the front door to sending a shopping list from your note-taking app to your printer when you say the right words.
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Until now, the service has been free and somewhat limited in capability. As the name suggests, you’re building very simple coding commands based on natural language. If this happens, then do that. Anything more complicated was out of reach, as you were limited to one trigger (the IF statement).
Now, as IFTTT pivots to a subscription system, it’s expanding what you can do with applets. As IFTTT founder and CEO Linden Tibbets put it in the company’s announcement, “Today is the day that If This Then That officially becomes If This and These Then That and That or whatever else you can dream up.”
Thanks to multiple trigger capability, you can now create an applet that says, “if the doorbell rings and Google calendar says I’m not in a meeting, turn on the porchlight and living room light.” That wasn’t possible before.
But, IFTTT is introducing a new IFTTT Pro tier and putting a new limit on the existing free tier. While it promises that the free tier will stay forever, you can’t only create three applets. You can activate an unlimited number of applets created by others, however.
The Pro Tier removes that limit, and IFTTT promises it will reduce latency compared to the free tier. A major complaint of IFTTT is slow reaction time, which could go a long way to making the service more viable.
For now, IFTTT Pro is “name your own price” with a minimum buy-in of $1.99 a month. But Tibbets says this won’t last forever; after October 7 you’ll have to pay $9.99 a month for the service.
Source: IFTTT via Stacey on IOT