Control your thermometer. Unlock your door. Link to your laptop. The list of things you can accomplish with Tasker and IFTTT, or If This Then That, is nearly endless. The platform has been slowly maturing for a good while now and has come into its own as a full-featured command software. A good few devices have already snapped up the software as a backend, such as Amazon’s Alexa, but imagine having that kind of power on your wrist, wherever you go. Whether you’re at home or on the go, you can control your home and your smartphone, taking charge of things from your schedule to turning on your heat or air before you get home. If you own a Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch, you do have that kind of power.
Tasker allows users to do all sorts of things, such as update their social media feeds and update their social media feeds. IFTTT is an automation software that allows a user to set a given condition and something to do under that condition. When combined, commands like, “When Mom comes home, set the thermostat to 75 degrees.” become a reality. IFTTT can also make use of trigger words to set off a given task even if the condition set for it hasn’t been fulfilled yet. In the above example, perhaps somebody besides the user’s Mom comes home first – should that happen, the user can simply use a trigger word to make IFTTT initiate the thermostat control action as if Mom has come home.
With the Gear S2 on board, Tasker and IFTTT gain a whole new world of portability and power. A 24/7 link to the internet and, if applicable, the user’s smartphone, allows the software to take care of things like blogging, replying to messages and social media by voice or automatically. Along with the IoT functions, as both platforms grow, the uses will become near infinite. This new wave of portable power could be the first taste of a near future where wearables not only replace traditional smart devices, they surpass them entirely in function, convenience, battery life and many other factors.