The power of location and IFTTT recipes combined: Say hello to LIFTTT

Location + IFTTT = Some mighty addicting ways to harness the power of your favorite web apps.

The online service IFTTT (if this, then that) has built up a loyal fanbase of people who enjoy mixing together their favorite web apps. For example, using IFTTT’s recipes you can have all of your photos uploaded to Facebook or Instagram saved on a private Dropbox folder. IFTTT allows you to “put the internet to work for you,” as its slogan says.

Now LIFTTT, a new iPhone and Android app launching today from developer Visual Candy, is adding location to the mix. In short, the app lets you add location data to any IFTTT recipe — for example, you can send yourself an email reminder when you arrive at work, or turn on devices connected to a home automation gadget like the Belkin Wemo when you get home.

LIFTTT lets you trigger recipes whenever you leave or enter a location, and you can also specify the time and distance from the location to enable the trigger. It’s all powered by Visual Candy’s experience with low-powered location API’s, which means LIFTTT shouldn’t hurt your battery life too much. The developer previously created Uber Checkin, an app that lets you automatically check-in to locations on Foursquare.

“We believe that combining the power of IFTTT with our strong knowledge in location-based APIs let’s you create even more incredible recipes that allow you to do and connect awesome, useful things,” the Visual Candy duo (a wife and husband team) said in a statement.

This is the sort of thing I expect IFTTT to be working on already. The company just released an iPhone app that opens up your contacts and mobile photos for IFTTT recipes, and location data seems like the next logical addition. For now, though, the LIFTTT app is a helpful stopgap solution.

You can expect plenty more apps to use your location data in creative ways over the next year. Developers are getting better about tapping into location data without killing your battery — just look at how Foursquare finally managed to enable passive notifications on its apps, a feature that could save the company from irrelevancy. We’re also at the point where most people aren’t freaked out by the mere idea of location tracking. Now, it’s almost expected (as long as knowing your location makes your life easier).