Anyone With Smart Lighting Should Use IFTTT
You’ve no doubt explored the app that comes with your smart lights and found some useful tricks in it, from turning on your lights at scheduled times to switching between different colors and brightness settings throughout the day. However, you can do much more with IFTTT.
IFTTT (If This then That) is a long-established web and mobile app for bundling different services together. For example, it can automatically send Instagram photos to X (but only when using a specific hashtag); forward SMS messages to your email; export Fitbit statistics to Google Sheets; and more – there are plenty of options to explore.
The tool also connects to several smart lighting platforms, including Philips Hue, Lifx, TP-Link, Nanoleaf and Govee. This means you can link specific triggers from all kinds of apps and services to automatic actions on your smart lights.
You can sign up and use IFTTT for free. Pro accounts are also available, starting at $3 per month, which give you access to more automations (known as applets), a larger selection of triggers and actions to choose from, access to AI enhancements, and some additional features.
How to set up the IFTTT applet
Once you’ve registered an account with IFTTT and logged into the web interface, you can start creating applets. Click New , then select Add next to If This . This is the trigger that will put the automation into action. This could be anything from a new message on Google Chat to a new track from your favorite band on SoundCloud. You can also use time and date as triggers.
When you create an applet, you’ll need to sign in to all the different services you use and give IFTTT access to your account credentials (which you can revoke at any time). If an app or service isn’t available in IFTTT, it’s likely because third-party plugins can’t connect to it.
You’ll often be presented with trigger options – for example, if you’re connecting Dropbox, you can specify a specific folder whose activity IFTTT monitors. These options give you more granular control over triggers, which can be useful in terms of smart lighting control.
Once you’ve selected a trigger, you can choose an action: Click Add next to Then This . (For the purposes of this article, you’ll need to connect the smart lights you choose, but there are plenty of other options for creating applets—you can send emails to your inbox or send notifications to your phone.) The choices are slightly different for actions versus triggers, and again, there are usually some customization options available.
You’ll need to log in and connect any new apps or services you connect to, and then you’re almost done. Click Continue to view an overview of the new applet, then click Finish to confirm. You can manage your active applets through the My Applets section of IFTTT. They can be temporarily suspended or removed completely at any time.
IFTTT Applets You Can Try With Smart Lanterns
Now that you know how to create applets, you can turn your attention to your smart lights – ways to use them as an alternative notification system for something instead of checking your phone or email. For these examples I’ll be using Philips Hue bulbs since that’s what I have, but different smart platforms are supported.
For example, you can have your smart lights tell you about the new episode of your favorite podcast on Spotify. Select “Spotify” and “New” and then “Show” as the trigger, then set the action to Philips Hue lights and “Blink”. You don’t have to flash lights throughout your entire home—you can choose one individual light for this or any other activity.
Getting weather alerts is fun because you can use the colors of your smart lights. Select Underground Weather , then Current Condition will change to as the trigger, and select Rain as the condition (your location should be detected automatically). In this case, the trigger for the Philips Hue lights should be “Change Color” – set it to “blue” to get rain alerts, or adjust the settings for any other conditions.
What if your Android phone is in another room or on a table and you want to know when it needs to be charged? Select Android Battery , then Low Battery as a trigger, then Philips Hue and Set Room Scene – you can specify a lighting change to alert you when it needs to recharge. For this to work, you must have the IFTTT Android app installed on your phone, which allows you to track your battery level.
Another potentially useful way to use lighting is through scheduling. IFTTT lets you select “Google Calendar” and “Any event starts as a trigger” – you can then set the Philips Hue action to blink or change color to indicate that the event will start within a certain number of minutes. You can set this up for a specific calendar in your account (such as your appointments calendar) so you don’t get overwhelmed with notifications.
What about connecting smart lighting to a video intercom? If you select “Ringing” and “New Call Detected” as a trigger, the resulting action may be the Philips Hue lights changing color or scene, or some or all of them flashing rapidly. If you don’t have a doorbell that can be easily heard or instant access to your phone, this can be very convenient.
These are just a few options you can explore on the IFTTT platform, but there are many more possible. For example, IFTTT also connects to iOS shortcuts , giving you even more options to mix and match automatic connections.