Triggers For iOS Lets You Make Your Own Simple Apps [Review]

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What will you make your iPhone do?
What will you make your iPhone do?

Triggers is a fascinating new idea for simple input-and-output programming on your iOS device. It gives you access to the system-level controls for various bits of hardware, and control what they do in a limited way. If you’ve ever used If This Then That, you’ll get the idea immediately.

The logic is very simple: if this thing happens, do that thing. If your iPhone’s accelerometer detects movement, make a sound. If the camera detects a change of brightness, open a web page. That sort of thing. Here’s a video.

It’s not a pretty app, and the interface for creating new triggers is not particularly clear. But it comes with a tutorial, and it’s worth spending a minute going through that so you know how things work.

The triggers you make can be saved locally on your device, for running again in future. But more interestingly, you can upload triggers to share with other users. Look for the “Online” button in the Triggers list screen to see what clever ideas other people have come up with – you can download them as editable templates, to run as-is or to edit to suit your own requirements.

Triggers is a really interesting little idea, although I confess I’m struggling to come up with any ideas for recipes (as IFTTT would call them) that I’d end up using often.

It’s cool to have something you can control, and it’s cool to make widgets that flash a light when you move the phone, or beep when things get too noisy. But don’t set your expectations too high – this app is more about exploring ideas than about utility.

Still, I’m going to be keeping my eye out for clever recipe ideas from others, and certainly handing this app to my 9-year-old, to see what he can make with it.

Pro: Ingenious and original idea

Con: At $4, a bit pricey for what it does

Via: Next Web

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