How to get started with IFTTT's Do Camera app

With the news that IFTTT has launched three new standalone apps, we thought we'd take a look at the photography-related tool, Do Camera, to see if its automation options made our lives any easier.

The Do Camera app works with your iOS or Android device's camera to run recipes and share imagery straight from the app.

With recipes mixed by others, or ones you've created yourself, you can use shortcuts for things such as sharing photos to social sites, sending images to others and cataloging pictures to relevant services.

Available on iOS and Android, the app is free to download. Once you've downloaded Do Camera and signed in, you can browse for recipes you find useful.

Adding a recipe is simple. If you've already activated the relevant channels, simply click on a recipe in the app that you're interested in and tap "Add Recipe." It works the same way from the web; when you want to use a recipe, simply fire up the Do Camera app and click it to get started.

You can only choose three recipes to sit in the app ready for use. You can switch these out at any time for fresh ones, but it's a little limiting if you're a die-hard IFTTTer who wants to send imagery to a variety of sites and services.

A spokesperson for IFTTT told Mashable the three-recipe limit is intended to "make everyday use easier and more simple for users" so they "can use the apps to hone in on the actions they do most each day." The spokesperson also said IFTTT is "looking into" premium versions of the apps that will allow you to have more than three recipes at a time.
The recipes

You can create your own recipes or, to get started sooner, you can browse recipes on your device. From the "My Recipes" screen, click the plus sign to swap in a new recipe. Since the introduction of the new "Do" apps, you can now browse recipes on the IFTTT website that are specific to these apps, as well as via keyword and curated collection methods.

Current ready-made options range from simple automations...

It all depends on which recipes you want to use for what purpose. But we did find that, although the Do Camera app recipes may offer substantial shortcuts or even innovative uses for some more niche IFTTT channels, you may be better off doing things the native way for everyday images you already share out from your phone's camera.

For example, the sample recipe is the ability to email a photo to yourself — either one you snap right then and there, or one saved to your phone's photo library. Emailing the image via Do Camera cuts out a few clicks of the screen, but there is only the ability to send one image at a time. If you want to send multiple images, you'd need to share the old-fashioned way.

Be sure to let us know which Do Camera recipes you've tried.

Posted by : Gizmeon