Cnet came out with an article yesterday, they are going to test IFTTT in their smart house for a month. They use ST as their hub.
"It’s one of the reasons why I think SmartThings is a smart pick for home automation: you can use it to automate gadgets on IFTTT that don’t have channels of their own. This includes generic smart bulbs like the GE Link and Cree Connected LEDs as well as things like smart locks. If it works with SmartThings, it works with IFTTT. We’ll plan on putting all of it to the test.
Stay tuned…
We’ll have a complete rundown of how reliably everything works next month, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, let us know how you use IFTTT, and if there are any other recipes or IFTTT-compatible products you’d like us to include in our tests."
I’ve been blown away with IFTTT lately. Especially with my Particle Photon integration. It’s the only way I can get my Wemo’s to work at all, not just with SmartThings.The latency is acceptable to me, my only concern is the always connect requirement. Although ST is in the same boat so it doesn’t keep me up at night.
IFTTT works OK if you aren’t concerned about what time an event is triggered - there is a random delay based (just a guess) on how busy their server is, of up to several minutes.
This is not very useful for intrusion alarms or even lighting control, due to performance.
The CNET article should be very amusing…
IFTTT is a great backup solution for Sunrise/Sunset lighting triggers. Smartthings had been completely unreliable for about a month turning on and off lights at sunrise or sunset. I had IFTTT serve as backup because a few minutes of delay for an outdoor light at sunrise isn’t the end of the world.
It’s also a great way to trigger events based on weather conditions. Having a light turn on when its cloudy or raining helps brighten up the house.
I would never use IFTTT as a motion activated light. I’d be standing around in darkness for a minute or so until the cross-cloud talk triggered the light on.
IFTTT has some pretty fabulous recipes with devices and services that are outside the Smartthings compatibility list and there’s a great thread on here for other ideas.