Hello everyone!
You already know that you can add a delay to your IFTTT action, or your Tuya action, with Apilio. But that delay had always been set to a fixed amount of time…until today! You’ll now be able to specify a random delay that falls between a minimum and maximum.
What can I use a random delay for?
These random delays will be fantastic to set up an “away from home” logic that will turn things on and off at home when you are not there. Adding this randomness to when your actions are happening will help you achieve logic that makes it seem as if someone was home at that time. This means your TV won’t turn on every day at the exact same time, and the same thing goes for your lights and any other smart device you want to use for this routine.
You can also add a bit of randomness to your party lights, 
Christmas or 
Halloween lights, or any holiday lights for that matter and to any logic that could use some fun variations!
How to add a delay to an IFTTT action in Apilio
Just in case you are new to Apilio, here’s a quick intro:
In Apilio, you can create a list of actions that will execute when specified conditions are met. For example, when I get home at night, turn on the foyer lights and then, 30 minutes later, turn off the foyer lights. When you create those two actions (turn on and turn off foyer lights), you will add a 30 minute (30mins * 60 seconds = 1800 seconds) delay to the second one, like this:
Apilio lets you create chains of actions where each action can have their specific delay.
How to add a random delay to an IFTTT action in Apilio
When adding a delay to your IFTTT action in Apilio, you’ll now be able to specify that you’d like the delay to be random. You’ll have to set to boundaries: minimum and maximum time that you’d like your delay to have. For instance, you’d like the delay to be 3 minutes minimum and 15 minutes maximum. The maximum time allowed is 60 minutes (3600 seconds).
How to add a delay to a Tuya action in Apilio
You can also add delays to Tuya actions following the same procedure. When you add a new Tuya action, you can also specify a set delay in seconds (maximum 60 minutes, that’s 3600 seconds):
How to add a random delay to a Tuya action in Apilio
To add a random delay to your Tuya (Smart Life) action, simply select “random” delay and then enter your minimum and maximum desired delay:
I want to do more crazy things with my delays and my actions!!
We have a couple of more ideas, but we’d love to know about what you have in mind. Let us know in the comments below 
Related articles
- If you are new here, you might be interested in this article: Getting started - An introduction to Apilio
- How to add a delay to an IFTTT action
- ★ Apilio's help guides: all our documentation ★