we reviewed the native iPhone app of the extremely popular service, IFTTT (IF This Then That), which uses “recipes” (or collections of commands between applications and other services) to trigger specific actions. This time, we’ll take a closer look at some recipes available for the IFTTT iPhone app that can prove to be very convenient, especially if you are already familiar with IFTTT and what the services does. Important Note: It seems that the IFTTT iPhone app needs to be open in order to function properly since Apple’s APIs won’t let some apps sync in the background. This should be solved with the release of iOS 7, but in the meantime the app’s functionality can be somewhat hindered by it.
1. Keep a Constantly-Updated Backup of Your Contacts
When it comes to important, personal information, there can never be enough backups. This is exactly what this recipe does with your contacts: It creates a Google spreadsheet and updates it every time you add a create a new contact on your iPhone. (Recipe ID 106535)
2. Stay Up to Date With the Latest Netflix Releases
If you are a Netflix subscriber, then you surely value having literally thousands of movies to watch on demand from just about every device out there. Well, things just got better thanks to this IFTTT recipe, which links the “New Releases” feed of HackNetflix.com to your email so that you get a new message every time Netflix gets a new release. (Recipe ID 107221)
3. Get a Fake Call
What else is there to say. Having a call reach you just when you want to get away from that boring meeting or annoying friend can be one of the best things to happen. This recipe does just that. It texts an SMS tagged #callme to IFTTT, which then call you and even reads a preset message to you. (Recipe ID 47852) Note: This one might not work in some countries.
4. Get Free Music Automatically to Your Dropbox
This one is quite neat. What this recipe does is to use the “free music downloads” section of Last.fm and downloads the current free song in mp3 format to your Dropbox. Just tweak the destination folder and that’s it. (Recipe ID 106702)
5. Keep a Copy of Your iPhone Reminders
Just as with your contacts and other information stored in some of Apple’s native apps, Reminders provides no easy way to export your lists. Using this recipe though, every new reminder you create on your iPhone will be copied to a Google spreadsheet, including its title and date, as well as the name of the list it belongs to and its priority. (Recipe ID 90238) And that’s it for this entry. If you have any trouble looking for any of the recipes above, just search for them using their IDs. And don’t just stick to these, explore the app and you are bound to find even more useful recipes. Enjoy!
