Gadgetory

we've got a lot of connected gadgets here in the scene that smart home but not all of them work together that's where a service like EFT comes in handy it's a free online tool that lets you automate pairs of web services or social networks or smart home devices there's a growing number of these devices that work with ifs and let you craft recipes using the if this then that formula if you apply that to the smart home you can get your gadgets to start working out one good example here is the set of Wemo switches in the wall these are great smart switches for automating lights in your home but if you hook them up with IFFT you can use them to control other smartphone gadgets as well for instance by long press on this switch here you'll see the light flashes and then the nest thermostat upstairs will go to 68 that's a nice way to maybe set the thermostat as you walk out the door as you walk in another IFFT integration that we've tried out here that I'm a fan of is what if it does for Amazon echo that's a voice-activated smart speaker that could control a lot of smart home devices voice commands but it doesn't work with the nest thermostat again if can make the nest thermostat smarter by bringing echo into the picture you make a recipe that says whenever I say Alexa set the thermostat that's 68 the thermostat goes to 68 and there you go you've got a voice-activated thermostat the real question of all of this though is can use IFFT in place of a system like wink or smart things to kind of control all of your smart home devices in one ecosystem I think you can if you're very picky about which devices you go all in all I think if does a great way to introduce yourself to the concept of automation once you get the hang of that sort of if this then that formula you can start to see how it might apply into your smart