Background
The Twitter service on IFTTT includes 9 triggers that enable you to trigger an Applet when a specific user tweets, when you tweet, or when you gain a new follower. However, if you’re looking to find Tweets that don’t fall within the scope of these triggers, the New Tweet From Search trigger lets you customize your search criteria to trigger an Applet based on the specific Tweets you’re interested in.
This trigger checks for new Tweets matching your search query every five minutes and triggers whenever a new tweet matches. Each check is limited to 10 Tweets, and protected Tweets are not included.
This guide will outline how to best format your search to get the result you're interested in.
Basic Search
When formatting your search, you can use operators or special characters to refine the results which is covered in the sections below.
When configuring your query without operators or special characters, the search will return any Tweets containing that word. If multiple words are used, the search will return Tweets containing all of those words, but not necessarily in the order they appear in the search query.
If you were to configure the trigger's search for field as IFTTT Applets
This would return any Tweets that included both the word IFTTT and the word Applets.
With the above query:
- A Tweet containing "I created an IFTTT account then enabled Applets" would trigger the Applet since it contains both IFTTT and Applets
- A Tweet containing "I created an IFTTT account" would not trigger an Applet using that query since it contained IFTTT but not Applets.
Using an OR operator
If you want to search for Tweets that contain any of several keywords, but not necessarily all of them, using the OR operator can be helpful.
When you include an OR operator, the search will return any Tweets that contain any of the specified words. You can use the OR operator between multiple search terms.
For example, if you configure the trigger's search field as IFTTT OR Applets OR services:
With this query:
- A Tweet containing 'I'm creating my own service on IFTTT' would trigger the Applet, as it contains at least one of the search terms separated by the OR operator: service and IFTTT.
Finding an Exact Match
If you want to search for Tweets containing an exact phrase, using quotation marks can help.
When you enclose a phrase in quotation marks, the search will return only Tweets that contain that exact sequence of words. This can be useful for finding Tweets with a specific phrase or quote.
For example, if you configure the trigger's search field as "IFTTT app":
With this query:
- A Tweet containing 'I am using the IFTTT app for automation' would trigger the Applet, as it contains the exact phrase 'IFTTT app'.
- A Tweet containing 'IFTTT is a great app' would not trigger the Applet, as the phrase 'IFTTT app' does not appear as an exact match."
Excluding Retweets, quotes, and specific search terms
When configuring your search, you can fine-tune your results by excluding retweets, quotes, or specific terms.
Excluding Retweets: To exclude retweets from your search results, use the -is:retweet operator. This ensures that retweets are filtered out, so you only get original Tweets that match your query.
For example, IFTTT -is:retweet would return Tweets that include the word IFTTT but are not retweets.
Excluding Quotes: If you want to exclude Tweets that are quotes, use the -is:quote operator. This operator filters out Tweets that quote other Tweets, focusing your search on original content.
For example, IFTTT -is:quote would return Tweets that include the word IFTTT but are not quotes.
Excluding Specific Terms: To exclude Tweets containing a specific term, use the - operator before the term you want to filter out. For instance, if you want to exclude Tweets containing the term "Applet" you would include -Applet in your query.
For example, IFTTT -Applet would return Tweets that include the word IFTTT but do not also include the word Applet.
Combining Multiple Search Terms and Special Characters
To refine your search by combining multiple operators and special characters, use quotation marks, parentheses, the OR operator, and additional operators such as from: to specify Tweets from a particular user.
Enclosing phrases in quotation marks ensures you find exact matches, while parentheses help group terms and control the order of operations. Combining these with the OR operator allows for more complex queries, and using from: lets you filter Tweets by a specific user.
For example, if you configure the trigger's search field as from:IFTTT ("AI Tools" OR Applets)(productivity OR "time savings")
With this query:
- A Tweet from @IFTTT containing 'Explore our AI tools designed for efficiency and time savings' would trigger the Applet, as it matches either 'AI Tools' or 'Applets' and includes either 'productivity' or 'time savings'.
- A Tweet from @IFTTT containing 'Check out our new AI Tools' would not trigger the Applet, as it matches 'AI Tools' but does not include either 'productivity' or 'time savings'.
Available Operators
You can also view all available operators here, any operator tagged with the Search tag is compatible with the New Tweet From Search trigger. A search query must include a search term or other element, not only an operator. For example: a search of only is:retweet will return an error.