SmartThings and If This Then That

[parkernathan (Nathan Parker)]

Is anyone in the community using SmartThings with If This Then That, and if so, how are you (and side question: does anyone in the community use If This Then That in general for anything)? I haven’t tried the service and and am wondering if I’m missing out on anything.

Thanks!

[btk (The fish is still dead.)]

Try a forum search on “IFTTT”. I’m not sure “If This Then That” will turn up a whole lot.

There are tons of great ideas floating around here!

[parkernathan (Nathan Parker)]

Will do. Thanks for the info!

[JDRoberts]

Lots of us use it for many different things. As @btk suggested, search on IFTTT.

Here’s the official blog post:

http://blog.smartthings.com/how-to/ultimate-ifttt-guide/

And here’s my Echo to Harmony project report. Note the use of virtual switches, that’s where SmartThings really shines.

Alexa + SmartThings + IFTTT + Harmony to turn TV on and off by voice (2015 version)

Updated 12 November 2015 after Amazon added “Triggers” to their IFTTT Channel for Alexa As valuable as I personally found this project, and as much as I learned in doing it, as of 12 November 2015 it’s now no longer necessary. Amazon has added verbal triggers to their IFTTT channel. So you can say anything you want to as a trigger to Alexa and use that as the “if” for an IFTTT recipe, and have that trigger anything that has an IFTTT “that” channel. So SmartThings, Philips Hue, Harmony activities, etc. No virtual switches needed, no synch issues. It really is that easy. If you’re new to IFTTT, here’s a good overview: You may still want to use the direct Harmony/SmartThings integration to control certain aspects of TV watching, like limiting your kids to 30 minutes of Net…

[melianguidry (Paul Melian)]

I started using IFTTT when I first got ST, but most of the things I tried to do with IFTTT could be done natively in the app, though I do have the Amazon Echo and I ordered the Harmony Hub and have plans to use IFTTT to integrate the two (instructions posted somewhere on this board)

EDIT: By “somewhere on this board” I apparently mean “in the link JD posted just above me while I typed this”

[parkernathan (Nathan Parker)]

Nice. I will check out the guide. I was thinking that many of the recipes could be handled natively in SmartThings, but I need to learn more about IFTTT anyway just to see the benefits of it.

I’m seriously considering getting an Amazon Echo as well and integrating it into SmartThings. I think it’d be fun.

[JDRoberts]

Echo is great, and SmartThings makes it 100 times better!

IFTTT allows you to create integrations between Smartthings and anything else that has a IFTTT channel, but what’s even more significant in some ways is that because SmartThings can use virtual switches you now have the option to add switch control to anything that has an IFTTT channel. So you can trigger things with a button controller like the Aeon Minimote, by a SmartThings mode, in response to a sensor, or now with voice control through Echo.

And you can do it all without having to write code or create a new device type.

Direct integrations are better when they exist, but when they don’t exist, you can do a lot with IFTTT.

[keithcroshaw]

It used to be kind of slow but now it’s fast enough for my needs. I use it to integrate my Wemo switches as I have a terrible time with the official integration. I used it for my particle photons for a time but swapped to direct integration now. Its powerful, but could use some more customizable recipes with some Boolean operators.

[parkernathan (Nathan Parker)]

Sounds good about the Echo. Might pick one up as my birthday present.

I tried to click over to the guide, but it’s saying page not found.

[sidjohn1]

This is how i use IFTTT w/ smartthings:

Using old iPhone as a Webcam

I am using manythings with IFTTT and through a virtual switch in smartthings. I have it attached to the Hello home and goodbye home scripts to turn on and off the cameras when people come and go. I also jailbroke both devices so i could run Background Manager (Cydia) to force a clock app and manythings to run at the same time. Then I turned on guided access so no one could exit the clock app w/o a passcode. I have a “old” iPhone 4s and iPod touch i’m doing this with. The motion detection seams to be a bit sensitive and there is some lag between IFTTT and smartthings, but slightly too much video is way better than not enough Next year I’ll be adding my iPad 2g into the mix but instead of a clock app I’ll be using air display and geek tool to turn it into a weather station. …