computer science

IFTTT

IFTTT is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand IFTTT rather than just read about it. In short: IFTTT (, an acronym of if this, then that) is a private commercial company that runs services that allow a user to program a response to events in the world. IFTTT has partnerships with different providers of everyday services as well as using public APIs to integrate them with each other through its platform.

Key takeaways

IFTTT belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect IFTTT to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of IFTTT from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

IFTTT (, an acronym of if this, then that) is a private commercial company that runs services that allow a user to program a response to events in the world. IFTTT has partnerships with different providers of everyday services as well as using public APIs to integrate them with each other through its platform. They supply event notifications to IFTTT. Users can write applets that can respond to these events by executing related commands.

History Linden Tibbets, the co-founder of IFTTT, announced the launch of the project on December 14, 2010. The first IFTTT applications were designed and developed by Linden with co-founders Jesse Tane and Alexander Tibbets. The product was officially launched on September 7, 2011. In June 2012, the service entered the internet of things space by integrating with Belkin Wemo devices, allowing applets to interact with the physical world. In July 2013, IFTTT released an iPhone app and later released a version for iPad and iPod touch. An Android version was launched in July 2014. By the end of 2014, the IFTTT business was valued at approximately 170 million US dollars. By December 2016, the company announced a partnership with JotForm to integrate an applet to create actions in other applications. Part of IFTTT's revenue comes from IFTTT platform partners, who pay to have their products connected to the service, but on September 10, 2020, the service switched to a limited freemium model with a subscription-based version known as "IFTTT Pro", which offers unlimited applet creation, access to more advanced features, such as the ability to create multi-step applets with several triggers and actions, and allows services to use conditional statements and query data for more complex tasks. At the same time, all existing users were limited to three custom applets, being required to subscribe to Pro in order to remove this limitation. This decision generated criticism from IFTTT's community of users. In 2025, IFTTT reported performance improvements across the platform, with Applets running 20% faster and improved Android stability. The company expanded its AI and workflow tools, adding advanced logic, reasoning, and summarization capabilities to Applets. Services including Webflow, Google Sheets, and Patreon were rebuilt on updated infrastructure. In January 2026, IFTTT added integrations for Bluesky (with multi-account support), Toggl Track, Captivate, Buzzsprout, Brevo, and Gravity Forms.

Features

Overview

IFTTT employs the following concepts:

Services (formerly known as channels) are the basic building blocks of IFTTT. They mainly describe a series of data from a certain web service such as YouTube or eBay. Services can also describe actions controlled with certain APIs, like SMS. Sometimes, they can represent information in terms of weather or stocks. Each service has a particular set of triggers and actions. Triggers are the part of an applet represented as "This" in the "If This Then That" acronym. They are the items that trigger the action. For example, from an RSS feed, users can receive a notification based on a keyword or phrase. Actions are the "that" part of an applet. They are the output that results from the input of the trigger. Applets (formerly known as recipes) are the predicates made from triggers and actions. For example, a user would activate a trigger by liking a picture on Instagram and the applet would do an action, like sending the photo to their Dropbox account. "Ingredients" are basic data available from a trigger—from the email trigger, for example; subject, body, attachment, received date, and sender’s address.

Usage examples IFTTT can automate web application tasks, such as posting the same content on several social networks. Marketing professionals can use IFTTT to track mentions of companies in RSS feeds. IFTTT is also used in home automation, for instance switching on a light when detecting motion in a room (with associated compliant devices).

Reception and impact IFTTT was featured on Time magazine's "50 Best Websites 2012" list. Microsoft developed a similar product called Microsoft Power Automate (Originally named Microsoft Flow).

See also Google Nest Microsoft Power Platform Node-RED a free-software, no-code automation environment. Zapier

References

External links Official website

Illustrations

IFTTT: Screenshot of the IFTTT website — Screenshot of the IFTTT website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with IFTTT

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what IFTTT claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to IFTTT before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about IFTTT ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of IFTTT

In research: IFTTT appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses IFTTT in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: IFTTT is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2011 software, Android (operating system) software, Automation software, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for IFTTT outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study IFTTT in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what IFTTT means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain IFTTT out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is IFTTT in simple terms?

Why does IFTTT matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study IFTTT?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on IFTTT.