Last Updated on 28 July 2022
We are lucky to live in a world in which we can control our smart home devices with apps on our phones. It’s great to be able to turn things off or on and program certain actions to occur, as they make our lives easier. Up until recently, it’s been a linear relationship between you, your phone and your smart home device. Now we have the next generation of functionality where our smart home devices can control each other!
IFTTT, If This, Then That is a super simple way to have your smart device apps play nice and speak to each other. Essentially, IFTTT allows you to create a number of triggers based on specific actions/events to make your smart devices, well smarter.
How IFTTT Works
To understand how IFTTT works, we first need to explain services and applets.
IFTTT is available on certain services – websites, apps, and devices – things you can command with IFTTT. For example, a service could be your smart home device, such as a security camera or a Google Home. Services are connected by applets (formerly known as recipes) which are made up of the trigger and the action. A trigger is the “if this” which causes an action or outcome “then that”.
Together, the service and applet can create a powerful and useful automation you had only dreamed about. For example, if you have a smart thermostat you can set up IFTTT to start cooling your house when you’re close to home. To create this marriage of function between different smart home devices, you need the IFTTT app.
Home Security + IFTTT – a Marriage Made in Smart Home Heaven
Using IFTTT, Swann Wi-Fi cameras can trigger other smart device actions when a number of events occur such as:
- Motion is detected
- Sound is detected
- The battery is low
- The doorbell is pressed
- A pet, person or vehicle is detected
Any of these events can be, for example, programmed to turn a light on, turn music off, activate your sprinkler!
One type of smart devices that become more powerful with IFTTT is security cameras. IFTTT can help you add another layer of security through automation to help deter intruders. For example, you can use IFTTT to turn on the lights when the camera detects motion. Swann security cameras are amazing triggers to make this happen.
How IFTTT can help improve your Swann Home Security Cameras
The Swann team has been testing how IFTTT recipes to see how they can help, and how they can be a little bit of fun too. Here are some of our favorites:
- Calm a sleeping baby: “If this – my Swann Indoor Alert Camera detects sound, Then that – my smart music speaker plays lullabies”.
- Remind me to recharge the batteries: “If This – My Swann Wire-Free camera battery runs low, Then That – Sound an alarm in my phone reminding me to charge up!”
- Ready my cup of tea: “If This – My Swann Floodlight Security Camera detects my vehicle arriving in the driveway, Then That – my smart kettle boils water, so it’s hot and ready for my drink”
With the Swann IFTTT integration, these types of actions are very simply programmed by you in the IFTTT app, and the possibilities are endless!
At Swann we decided to partner with IFTTT because it creates opportunities for a premium smart home experience that can easily be programmed to meet the needs of your home and lifestyle in a customized way.
We understand smart devices and automation create privacy concerns and using this app requires access to some data. IFTTT takes the private nature of your personal information very seriously. “Building trust takes more than just legal compliance”, please see the IFTTT privacy policy here: https://ifttt.com/terms
Download the IFTTT app for Apple or Android devices or go online. You can watch more about IFTTT on their YouTube channel too.
