IFTTT, which stands for "if this then that," connects various online apps, services, and smart devices. When something happens in one of them (the "if this" trigger), a corresponding deed happens elsewhere (the "then that" action). IFTTT now has a suite of apps that let you pull the trigger, so to speak, instead of waiting for it to happen. One of them, the DO Note by IFTTT app for iOS, lets you type text and send it instantly to another service. For example, you can use DO Note to update your status on Twitter, save a note to Evernote, and even change the temperature on a smart thermostat. We tested the DO Note iPhone app, but there's also an Android version.
How is DO Note more convenient than opening any of these apps and taking action in them directly? The idea is you can quickly swap between actions without having to open multiple apps, which makes it a lightweight productivity app. DO Note gives you an ultra-simple way to get textual missives out into the world, whether they're for personal use or public consumption.
The DO Apps
Those familiar with IFTTT's other DO apps, DO Button and Do Camera, will find DO Note falls somewhere between them in terms of its utility and ease of use. It's more complicated than DO Button (because you don't just hit a button) but less complicated than DO Camera (because editing text is easier than perfecting an image).
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Before the DO Note app does anything with text you type into it, you have to do a little behind-the-scenes work. First you have to log into or create an IFTTT account. In addition, you must connect whatever channels you want to use. Channels are simply other apps, services, and Internet-connected devices. You connect Channels in DO Note the same way you would make any other IFTTT recipe.
All the DO Note app functions run through your normal IFTTT account. You set up and manage DO recipes from IFTTT.com, right alongside your other recipes. Think of the app as merely a trigger.
With more traditional IFTTT recipes, the trigger is something that happens in the online world, and not necessarily an action you purposefully take. An example is "If my weather app predicts rain tomorrow, then send me a text message." Another example: "If I get an email from a new contact, add that person's email address to a Google Sheet." In both cases, the user did not cause the chain of events. It started when the first trigger was detected. With the DO Note app, as well its sister apps DO Button and DO Camera, the action occurs when the user opens the app and activates a trigger.
Overall, IFTTT can be an extremely handy productivity tool because it essentially lets you program apps to talk to one another without you having to know any programming.
IFTTT's main competitor is Zapier, an equally wonderful service that does not offer mobile apps with button-trigger capabilities. Zapier has some features IFTTT does not, notably the ability to connect more than two services at a time. Both IFTTT and Zapier are Editors' Choices, and both are well worth using. Zapier is slightly better for business use; IFTTT's edge is that it can connect to Internet-connected home appliances, such as smart light bulbs.
Setup and Use
Once you download and install the DO Note iPhone app and log into your IFTTT account, you can get cracking with the app. You can find premade recipes written by other people who use IFTTT, which is the simplest way to get started. The app lets you browse by category, such as DO Essentials, or by searching for the channel you want to use. You can also create original recipes.
DO Note works with channels that use or read text. The list includes but is not limited to: Evernote, OneNote, Facebook, Twitter, Google Calendar, Gmail, Docs, Todoist, Slack, Pushbullet, Wordpress, Blogger, Yammer, and Dropbox. It also works with smart home devices such as Nest Thermostat; there's a Nest recipe that lets you type in the desired temperature. There are also recipes for Philips Hue smart bulbs that change the color of your lights.
Creating recipes in the app takes little more than a few taps. You'll see a Recipe Bowl icon on the main page. Tapping it takes you to a new page where you can reorder your existing recipes and create new ones.
Upon launching the app, you see your first recipe as the main interface. The app spells out the recipe's action, but that text quickly fades to give you a flashing text insertion bar. From there, type whatever text needs to go into the recipe. To reach your other recipes, swipe right or left. If you prefer to use the built-in iOS voice-to-text function to dictate rather than type, it works fine, too.
Hit the Activation button when you're done typing. After a quick animation, you get a checkmark at the top of the page indicating the message, post, or command went through.
DO Note does one thing that the DO Camera app should. If you don't send a note that you type, the text remains on the screen even as you swipe left or right to access a different recipe. It's a great time saver compared with copying and pasting your message from one screen to the next. Once a message is sent, however, the text disappears.
Limitations
It's possible to accidentally send nonsense text, which is how many services interpret iPhone emojis. During testing, a skull emoji sent to a Nest Thermostat resulted in an email warning that "Nest Thermostat Recipe encountered an error." The same error occurred with normal letters because, as it turns out, Nest can only process numerals.
The Do Note has the same major limit as Do Button and Do Camera: if you have no phone data service or Wi-Fi, it's dead in the water. The interface kindly provides that checkmark animation to indicate the recipe has performed its duty, but if you're not paying attention, it's easy to miss if it doesn't go through. Thankfully, waiting for Do Note to perform doesn't take long, unlike with Do Camera, which must upload a photo, which can take a while. Do Note is just text, and mankind perfected sending that over IP a long time ago.
Thankfully, waiting for DO Note to perform doesn't take long, unlike with DO Camera, which has to upload a photo, and can take a while. DO Note is just text and consequently tends to zip right through.
The biggest limit is finding all the right channels in IFTTT that work with DO Note and crafting the right recipes for what you want to do. Browsing the selection of prewritten recipes can actually be fun, as you'll find some interesting time-savers. You may never open WordPress or Facebook or Twitter to post again (although an on-screen character counter wouldn't hurt). That's where DO Note makes itself indispensable—it's a one-stop app for getting your words out there.
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