IFTTT launches a Spotify channel, but offers nothing useful

In a blog post this morning, IFTTT announced a Spotify channel.

For the uninitiated, IFTTT is a web-based service that lets users set up automated actions, known as “recipes,” between apps that might not ordinarily talk to one another. So now Spotify subscribers will be able to integrate the service with other third-party apps like, well, anything. Eventually.

At the moment, the only triggers are new saved tracks and new playlist additions. The only available actions, similarly, are saving a track or posting it to a playlist.

The announcement comes with a couple of recommended recipes, but they’re pretty useless: Nobody wants to automatically tweet when they add a song to a playlist.

But there are a ton of great potential ways to use this channel:

• Dim the lights when you play a playlist
• Begin a playlist or podcast when you arrive home or geofenced location
• Trigger NPR’s All Things Considered every weekday at airtime
• Tell Alexa to star the last song you heard, or to launch your crucial “Doing Chores” mix
• Trigger a playlist with a calendar event — an office party, for example
• Trigger a playlist of my own voice recordings to cut class, à la Ferris Bueller
• Automatically play a Thunderstorms Mix when Harrison calls me so I can pretend it’s raining and I can’t talk

The possibilities could be endless. (Just text me, Harrison.)