IFTTT: 18 Applets for the news

For anyone that likes automating their electronics is much as they can, IFTTT is an application that probably is at the heart of how they do it. IFTTT is a platform for automating some of the test performed by smart devices around your home, but the company has also been working with news organizations to connect with their readers.

To highlight that work, IFTTT has launched a new collection of “Applets for News.”

So what is an Applet. IFTTT’s CEO Linden Tibbets explained that it represents the evolution of what used to be called recipes.

“We’re able to include much more functionality into an Applet, because Applets are both more advanced, and at the same time we made sure they were simpler — Applets are simply the switch [to multiple actions],” Tibbets said.

That might be hard to wrap your head around if you’ve never used an Applet before, so let’s get concrete. The news collection includes Applets created by publishers and by IFTTT itself, and it allows users to do things like automatically send to Slack trending business articles from The New York Times, or save to Instapaper hot stories from the world news subreddit or get an email any time TechCrunch writes about a specific company.

“A lot of media and news organizations are starting to come around to the realization that it’s not just about driving people to one destination, or to web and mobile,” Tibbets said. “It’s really about having a presence across every surface area where people are interested in consuming news.”