Amazon's Alexa is handy, but connecting it with If This Then That (IFTTT) lets you do so much more. Here's how to get started, along with some of our favorite applets.

Alexa is a powerful voice assistant with scores of actions, skills, and compatible devices. It can't do everything on its own, though, especially if you use non-Amazon services. If you want to set reminders, send emails, or take notes by talking to your Echo, and you don't want to do it all in the Alexa app, you need to reach outside of Amazon. That's where If This Then That (IFTTT) comes in.

IFTTT is a powerful tool that ties together different voice assistants, device platforms, and online services. It basically does exactly what it says: If you set something off with one thing (like Amazon Alexa), then you make something else happen (like sending an email through Gmail).

Here’s how to make your own Alexa-powered IFTTT applets (integrations) to do the things Alexa can’t readily do on its own. And if you want some easy tools you don’t need to create yourself, we've included some of our favorite premade IFTTT applets farther down the page.

Here we outline the steps to creating your own IFTTT applets. Although it looks like a lot of work, it's surprisingly simple once you get the hang of it.

Setting up IFTTT to work with Alexa is easy. Go to the IFTTT site and create an account. Search for Alexa if it doesn’t show up on the front page, then click Connect. Follow the prompts to link your Amazon account to your IFTTT account. After that, you might want to connect other accounts, like Apple for iOS integrations, Google for Google Calendar, Docs, or Sheets, and any compatible smart home platforms you use to control those devices with IFTTT applets. It’s the same process for all of them.

Be aware that a free IFTTT account can only use up to five applets at once. You can bump that limit up to 20 with an IFTTT Pro account for $3 per month or $24 per year.

With your account set up and all of your different services linked, you can start adding premade applets. Click Create. This will bring you to the very simple applet creation page.

IFTTT applets have two parts: "If This" is one part, "Then That" is the other. In this case, the "If This" part will be whatever you want to tell Alexa to do.

Click the Add button next to If This, then scroll down to Amazon Alexa. Select it, then look through the different triggers you can use. There are over a dozen possible Alexa triggers, but here are the basics:

"Say a specific phrase" is just that. You create your own voice command that you activate by saying, "Alexa, trigger (voice command)," which is simple and direct.

Alexa can also set off more roundabout IFTTT triggers, including whenever you add an item to your shopping list or to-do list, play a new song, or ask for a sports score. As of this writing, those are all of the triggers available for Alexa to activate IFTTT applets.

This is where IFTTT really opens up and lets you do things Alexa can't do alone. Click Add next to Then That and look through the list of devices, platforms, and services IFTTT can work with. It can interact with communication services like Discord, Gmail, and Slack; cloud storage services like Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive; list services like Evernote and OneNote; and dozens of different smart home platforms. It can even simply send SMS text messages. Keep in mind that you have to link every service and platform you want to use to your IFTTT account in order to set anything up.

Of course, after you choose what service or device you want IFTTT to interact with, you have to explain exactly how it should interact. The next page after you select the platform will offer a variety of outcomes, all of which depend on the platform itself. This is where it can get complicated.

For smart home devices, the outcomes can be as simple as turning lights on or off, or locking or unlocking the door. Anything that involves text, though, might require a bit more. You need to fill out the fields in the outcome you select, and possibly incorporate IFTTT Ingredients into the mix for detail.

For Gmail, for example, you need to set where the email will go (probably to yourself, which is why there's a dedicated outcome for that), along with what the subject and body will say. Unfortunately, for a simple trigger phrase you can't actually send anything detailed besides the time you said it (the TriggeredAt Ingredient) or a prewritten message. If you ask Alexa for your shopping list, though, you can send the entire list to your email (the EntireList Ingredient). IFTTT will automatically populate fields with relevant ingredients, or offer them as clickable buttons so you don't have to keep track of them and type them out.

With the trigger and outcome configured and the applet named, all you have to do is click Continue, then choose whether you want the IFTTT app to notify you when it activates, and click Finish. After that your applet is ready to work with Alexa.

As you can imagine, you can get very involved with these applets if you're willing to play around with all of the different variables. If you want to experiment, you should consider an IFTTT Pro account(Opens in a new window) . It adds advanced features, including queries and filters for further customizing triggers and outcomes. For basic actions, though, a basic account and its simple choices are probably best.

Making your own applets still seem too daunting? Luckily there are already plenty of good premade applets for you to choose from. These are some of our favorites.

Have you settled down for a nice, quiet night and left your phone across the room? Do you want to keep your night nice and quiet without hearing sudden calls or messages? This applet lets you remotely mute your phone(Opens in a new window) , so you won’t be caught off guard by a ringtone.

Alexa lets you make to-do lists and easily check them with the Alexa app on your phone, but that just means the Alexa app becomes yet another service to check for reminders. If you already use a Google(Opens in a new window) or iOS(Opens in a new window) calendar, you probably want to stick with it. These two applets automatically sync your Alexa to-do lists to your respective calendar, giving you one fewer thing to have to check.

You can check your shopping list on the Alexa app if you use your Echo to add items to it, but you don't have to go that far. This applet will automatically send your list to you as a text message(Opens in a new window) when you ask Alexa what's on it.

Setting a timer on your Echo speaker is handy if you’re going to be around it all the time, but if you step out you might forget it’s even set. These applets let you know when your Alexa timers go off, both by sending your phone a notification (Opens in a new window) and by flashing your Philips Hue lights(Opens in a new window) . You can also set up your own applet to blink any other smart lights supported by IFTTT if you don’t use Hue bulbs.

Do you keep your Echo speaker playing music in the background while you work? Have you ever heard a song you didn’t recognize and didn’t ask Alexa what it was in time? This applet creates a Google spreadsheet(Opens in a new window) of all the songs Alexa plays for you.

You already use Amazon Alexa to play music, set alarms, and get the news, and now you know how to use IFTTT applets. Here, we highlight some lesser-known features to help you get more out of your Echo device.

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I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).

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