IFTTT: The Would-Be Lynchpin of the Connected Home

In the tech world, which apps or devices will work with each other usually gets decided by the companies who make them. If you want to post an Instagram photo to Twitter, for instance, you’ll have to do so from separate apps. But startup IFTTT lets you connect the two so that whenever you Instagram something, it goes out to your Twitter followers as well.

IFTTT, which rhymes with “gift,” stands for “if this, then that.” At its simplest, IFTTT is a service that lets users set up a trigger: “If I send a text message, then open up the garage door.” Now five years old, IFTTT has found something of a following among the home automation crowd, where making gadgets work together has been a real pain point for users.