Use IFTTT To Supercharge Your Twitter Alerts

Use IFTTT To Supercharge Your Twitter Alerts

IFTTT, one of our favourite apps for doing just about anything, just got updated with a bunch of new Twitter triggers — if you want to stay on top of tweets that mention your name, you now have a much wider choice of ways to do it. These same alerts can also be set up for tweets from a particular @name or using a specific hashtag.

The options below assume some familiarity with the IFTTT service. If you’re new to it, sign up for an account on the website, then choose to create a new recipe. You’ll be prompted to connect your various third-party accounts (including Twitter) as you go.

Buzz your phone

Use IFTTT To Supercharge Your Twitter Alerts

If you’re not already drowning in notifications and you don’t want to use a Twitter client for the job then IFTTT can buzz your phone whenever someone mentions you on Twitter. Use the Android Notifications or iOS Notifications action to complete your recipe (there’s the option to include the text of the tweet if you’d like to).

Add it to a list

Use IFTTT To Supercharge Your Twitter Alerts

One of the ways in which you can ensure you don’t miss any mentions is by appending them to a master Google Docs file that will grow to be a comprehensive database of your Twitter interactions. Choose Google Drive as the action channel then Append to a document as the action; alternatively, you can use a spreadsheet instead.

Flash your study lights

Use IFTTT To Supercharge Your Twitter Alerts

Not everyone has the luxury of sitting in front of TweetDeck all day, but you can still get alerts about Twitter mentions even when your laptop is switched off, if you have some smart lighting installed. Select Philips hue as the action channel and Blink lights as the action and every time someone gives you a timeline shoutout your lights will flash.

Create an email digest

Use IFTTT To Supercharge Your Twitter Alerts

Perhaps you only want to catch up on your mentions once a day or once a week. IFTTT caters for this too — if you select Email Digest as the action channel then you can pick from a daily or weekly update on your mentions. You have the option to include the name of the person who mentioned you, the tweet itself and the relevant URL.

Tweet back automatically

Use IFTTT To Supercharge Your Twitter Alerts

If you choose Twitter as the action channel as well as the trigger then you have the option to send a reply right back to whoever mentioned you. IFTTT lets you set the text of the tweet and how it’s structured, and there’s the option to include an image if you’d like. Probably not one to use if you get a lot of mentions, but you might find it handy.

Blog about it

Use IFTTT To Supercharge Your Twitter Alerts

This one is more useful if you want to monitor a particular hashtag or user or location (all new Twitter triggers added by IFTTT in the latest update) but you might have a strong desire to post your mentions on a blog too. Choose Tumblr or WordPress as the action channel and IFTTT enables you to create blog posts from your mentions.

Change your Android wallpaper

Use IFTTT To Supercharge Your Twitter Alerts

“Huh, my Android wallpaper changed… guess someone mentioned me on Twitter.” If you select Android Device as the action channel and then Update device wallpaper as the action when you’re creating a recipe, you can point IFTTT towards an image that appears as your phone or tablet wallpaper whenever you get a mention.


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