I was a big fan of Tasker, so much so that I bought it back when it was around $8, but since I wiped my phone a few months ago, I just haven’t added it back. Part of the reason was that it was just one more thing running in the background slowing down my phone, but a bigger part is that it was a big pain to set it up. That’s why I thought IFTTT’s DO Button might be interesting, it seemed like a very simple way to automate.
Do Button requires an IFTTT account. Once you’re logged in you can start creating or adding recipes and since you’re logged in all your recipes sync with your IFTTT account. Basically a recipe does something when you press the “DO ” button, which you can either access in the app or create a special button widget. So you could have a page of just DO buttons. Most of the “Channels” or things you’re sending to or controlling are online services anyway, so this really isn’t very useful if you don’t have an internet connection.
The only recipe I found useful was one which emailed you your location when you pressed a DO button, but I’ve only played with the program for an hour or so. It seems to be suffering from the same hype that IFTTT does: all the tech pundits rave about how much time and effort it saves them, but when I look at the recipes they recommend they just don’t apply to me. Half the channels involve services or devices I don’t have and the other half are post this or that automatically to Facebook or Twitter…like either of these services need anymore robotic spam.