New user here (although not new to IFTTT) and I have set up some location based integration by making use of the “When I exit/enter an area, update a variable in Apilio to true/false” applets, this works well.
However when I wanted to create another Logic block to evaluate different conditions for a second geographic location, I found that IFTTT only seems to allow me to add one instance of each of these two applets, so I can’t actually add a second location.
Is this to be expected and is there some workaround ? Would I have to create my own custom applet and try to reverse engineer how the apilio location applets were created ? If I did create my own, can I create any number of instances ?
Hi @DBMandrake,
I wasn’t aware of a limitation like that, but maybe that’s indeed the case.
You can always create the applet by yourself, it’s quite simple applet: https://ifttt.com/create
The service for the “this” is called “Location”, and for the that use the Apilio service with the action to update a boolean variable.
It seems that the “example” location applets that are shown in the Apilio service within IFTT can only be instanced once. If you try to add them again for another location you just end up editing the one you already connected and can’t create a new instance for a different location. At least that’s what happened to me.
As you suggested I tried creating custom applets based on a location trigger and sure enough, I can create as many as I like for multiple locations, so I now have four different location applets updating two local variables in Apilio. (“at_home” and “at_work”)
I have to say I’m loving the extra functionality of Apilio - I can’t believe that after all these years some sort of flexible logic like this isn’t built into IFTTT itself! I’ve tried and then stopped using IFTTT a couple of times in the last few years because the connectivity to devices and services is great but the ability to do anything more than just connect a trigger and an action is so extremely limited.
I deleted the original two entering location and exiting location “sample” applets provided with the apilio service and recreated them as custom applets to perform the same task - same location and radius, same apilio variable, and also created a second pair for a second location, which at the moment only updates a second boolean but isn’t actually linked with a logic block yet.
Unfortunately while everything looks OK, none of the location updates are actually working now when the phone goes in and out of the geofenced areas, and I can’t figure out why. I’ve tried launching the IFTTT app on the phone just in case it has to be launched for it to update the list of geofencing locations, (since the original ones were deleted) forcing the app to quit then reload etc, but it refuses to work.
As far as I can see this is an IFTTT problem not a problem with Apilio as the IFTTT applet is set to send a push notification when it triggers and I am not even receiving that.
Does anyone have any idea what’s gone wrong with the geofences in the IFTTT app ? Does the IFTTT iPhone app support multiple Geofence locations ?
Hmmn, we hear really varied feedback about the reliability of the IFTTT geofencing. Some people use Life360 services, which are apparently much more reliable, and I myself use connection to our Wifi network as the home geo location.
Life360 is what i use to sense when someone is home. My wife and i, also as the kids get older they will also be added to life360. I tried using IFTTT location services and frankly it took up 15 minutes to fire
I seem to have got it working again, although I’m not entirely sure what helped.
I disconnected and then reconnected the four new location triggers in IFTTT, and rebooted the phone as well.
I also reverted one settings change that I had made between the time when it was working and when it stopped - soon before it stopped working I had enabled background app refresh for IFTTT (previously disabled, as I disable background app refresh on most apps) so I’ve disabled it again. Seems crazy that enabling background app refresh (which is separate to and unneeded for background location services) would have any effect but you never know…
In any case it’s working again although it remains to be seen how reliable it is. Whatever the issue was it was definitely with the app on the iPhone itself not sending an event to IFTTT and it wasn’t just late sending it, it was never sending it at all.