Let’s learn how to build an Applet to help with time management and meeting preparation. You’ll set it up on your own Google Calendar, and we’ll walk through every step.
An Applet has two parts: something that has to happen first (the Trigger), and something that happens as a result (the Action). In this Applet, the Trigger is an event on your Google Calendar getting close to its start time, and the Action is a notification on your phone. Here’s how to build it:
- Go to the homepage and find the prompt box at the top.
- Type your prompt in the box: “Send me a notification 15 minutes before every event on my Google Calendar.”
- IFTTT Chat picks the Trigger and asks for anything it needs. Here, it asks which Google account and which calendar to watch. Choose yours. The 15 minutes comes straight from your sentence.
- Chat asks what the notification should say and fills in a message for you. Leave it as it is for now. The pieces in double curly brackets get explained in Chapter 3.
- Review the summary. You should see Any event starts as the Trigger and Send a notification from the IFTTT app as the Action. Select Yes, create it.
That’s your first Applet, with Google Calendar as the Trigger and a phone notification as the Action.
When Chat confirms the Applet is created, open it from My Applets and make sure it says Connected. Then add a test event to your calendar that starts a little over 15 minutes from now, and wait for the notification. From here on, every event on your calendar will get the same heads-up. Marcus gets the same buzz at 1:45 PM the next afternoon, with fifteen minutes to finish the paragraph. Your phone will do the same before your next event.