APRIL 2020 PCWorld 119
Google
Assistant and
IFTTT are a
match made in
heaven. Lost
your phone in
your house?
Ask your
Google Home
smart speaker
or smart
display to ring
it for you!
- GO FURTHER WITH IFTTT
Google Home can do quite a bit, and lots of
functionality has been added since the
service debuted. But it still has plenty of
limitations, especially when it comes to
smart tech that isn’t compatible with the
platform. Instead of revamping your entire
smart home to work with Google, you might
first want to try the original web-based
automator: IFTTT.
IFTTT, which stands for “If This, Then
That,” is a free automation service that
connects various web services, apps, and
devices using conditional statements.
Basically, IFTTT takes an action originated
on one service and uses it to trigger an
action on another service. IFTTT is
compatible with far more apps, devices,
and services than Google Home is, and it’s
highly customizable, which means you can
use IFTTT to force Google Home to trigger
all sorts of tasks.
To get started with IFTTT, you’ll need to
sign up for an account (or sign in) and
connect the Google Assistant service along
with any other services you’d like to use
(social media, phones, other smart home
devices, etc). Once you have all your
services connected, you can create your
own IFTTT applets or download applets that
other users have built to perform tasks. Here
are some of the most useful IFTTT applets for
Google Home users:
Add a to-do in iPhone’s Reminders app
with Google Home: “OK, Google, add a
reminder to my iPhone [reminder]” (go.
pcworld.com/adrm).
Send a text message with Google Home:
“OK, Google, message [name]” (go.
pcworld.com/gmss).
Add a song to a designated Spotify
playlist with Google Home: “OK, Google,
add [song name] by [artist name]” (go.
pcworld.com/adsp).
Tweet with Google Home “OK, Google,
tweet [message]” (go.pcworld.com/gtwt).
Add an event to your iOS calendar with
Google Home: “OK, Google, add to my
iOS calendar [event title], [day and time]”
(go.pcworld.com/iocl).
