What do you use IFTTT for with SmartThings? (Examples and Ideas) 😎

[JDRoberts]

Personally, my biggest use of IFTTT before the Amazon echo was released was for voice control of smart things.

Smartthings has an IFTTT channel, and there is also an IFTTT “SMS” channel that is triggered simply by sending a text with a specific hashtag.

So as long as you have an unlimited texting plan on your mobile, you can have voice commands for pretty much anything smartthings can do. This works especially well with a smart watch that can send voice text.

It’s not using natural language, so it can be a little clunky. But if you really need voice control, it’s a very nice, totally free way to add that functionality. You don’t need any extra devices.

I am quadriparetic, use a wheelchair with limited hand control, so this was very helpful to me before the Amazon echo became available. I do prefer the echo, because it does use natural language, but the IFTTT voice text message is still useful now when I am out of Echo range, such as in the yard.

I set up IFTTT’s text number as a contact called “House.” And I was then able to say “hey, Siri, tell House Hashtag bedroom underscore fan underscore on” and have the fan come on!

For more information on this method, see the following thread. Although the original author is using Siri in the example, the exact same method will work with any voice text Method including hey Google or Cortana.

Voice Control Using Siri and IFTTT (not using HomeKit, just voice text)

Hi All - see the below instructions for executing simple SmartThings commands using Siri. The solution involves sending a text to an IFTTT phone number which acts as a trigger to turn on or off devices via SmartThings. You can setup a contact called ‘home’ and then send a message to ‘home’ (use command ‘Tell Home’) with the proper tag to trigger the event. I’d love feedback on the approach. I would rather use more natural language like ‘Tell Home to turn on the kitchen lights’ rather than ‘Tell home hashtag kitchen underscore lights’. Regardless, the approach below executes simple ST actions with use of Siri alone, which is pretty cool. BASIC SETUP Setup an IFTTT account Add the Smarthings channel to IFTTT - make sure to provide access to any devices that you want to control Add th…