LIFTTT App Creators Steve and Anya with their two dogs, DeeDee and Mojo.
At 11:30 p.m. last Friday night, Steve and Anya were still working in the UK. They’re the husband and wife team behind VisualCandyApps, an app company completely dedicated to making useful apps that you’re likely to fall in love with. Specifically, they are figuring out new ways to work smarter through automation. On Monday, they released a new app called LIFTTT, and it could just change your world.
We’re all familiar with IFTTT, right? It stands for “If This Then That” and allows individuals to create recipes for all kinds of circumstances. Now, Steve and Anya have added location to the mix with their newest app.
Just imagine having your home know exactly when you arrive and automatically turn on the lights for you. What about tracking your activity log in an Evernote for when you leave certain destinations? Yep. It can do that, too. And the best part — You don’t even have to think about it. Once you set up your recipes within the app, it takes care of everything for you.
“We love automation, and we love location context,” said Anya. “Well IFTTT has all these awesome recipes and all these incredible channels, and if we can combine the two like location plus IFTTT, it’s like a whole new level of awesome on top of IFTTT. And no one else seemed to have thought of it before, so we thought we’d jump on it.”
However, it’s not just for productivity recipes. It can also help you with the whole work-life balance that every entrepreneur seems to struggle with. Steve explained, “Some of our friends and family (use) the SMS thing, especially for me to turn off, give Anya a kiss, those kinds of things. SMS has a different ring tone, so it’s a different switch off.”
Anya added, “Right. Sometimes you come home and you’re still just thinking about the day. It’s time to switch off.” The couple laughed after that, seeming to realize at the same time, “Well, I guess,” said Anya. “It is 11:30 on a Friday night.”
While some might question the idea of working with a spouse in a business, this team is flawless together, as they perfectly compliment one another. “It’s the total cliché that behind every good man is a good woman,” said Steve. He explained for them it’s the reverse. “I’m doing all the backend boring stuff, and she’s the front and center. And yeah… it’s cool!” Steve said, laughing.
“It’s just the two of us, and we’re doing this just because we love developing apps. We’re not looking to get funding. It’s just something we love to do,” said Anya.
“And we work well together,” added Steve. Anya laughed, “We have fun.”
Of course, work-life balance is something we all strive toward, and LIFTTT is just the beginning. That’s the beauty of it. There aren’t too many limits on what you can do, and the couple is excited to see what others will make of their app.
“We’re really curious to see what people will use it for,” said Anya. “Personally I see it as a productivity app.” Steve also added, “It’s funny how people come up with recipes. You might want to hook up something with DropBox. I’ve seen things with Netflix. A friend of mine had smart lights. That’s the great thing about IFTTT. There [are] so many possible combinations, it’s hard to envision what everything could be I think. That’s what makes it so awesome.”
What do you think? Could you use an app like this? The first location trigger is free, and it’s just $2.99 for unlimited. Find LIFTTT today in the iTunes store here or in the Google Play Store here, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
