Sensor to Sensor communication should always be better within the Almond+ system. It's when you want to pair those actions with things outside of just the home automation sensors that IFTTT becomes beneficial.
That's how it should be, but I have the impression that a lot of requests for ifttt support imply that securifi should skip its own automation platform in favor of iftt.
For example, UP by Jawbone knows when you are waking up (much better than a motion sensor ever will). There are many ways you could leverage this information. For example, you could slowly undim the lights in your bedroom to mimic sunrise (assuming its still dark out). This gives you a much better wake up experience.
Agreed,
my phone currently fetches this, some time before the alarm the lights start to brighten. If I dismiss the alarm music starts playing and the lights stay on, if I snooze the alarm the lights go back off.
Other people like to do detailed analytics. You could connect the Almond+ to Google Drive or EverNote or whatever your preference is to log sensor changes, electricity usage (smart meters), etc...
This is exactly why I am a bit hesitant, I don't want every sensor change to fly off to another cloud (or 2). The almond should provide visual sensorlogs, and options to export them.
Even basic things like make a phone call or send a SMS when an event is triggered. I'm some support may eventually be added to Almond+, but leveragin an already existing network will cut down on development time and maintenance cost.
If the almond wants to be a serious contender in home/security it should provide notifications on screen, in the app, email and perhaps SMS. It should not not depend on third parties for these essential functions.
How would that phone call work? A computer voice tells you about the event? (Sounds very intrusive for low priority events and slow for high priority).
There are also a bunch of niche examples; you could have IFTTT blink your lights to notify you of something (calendar event, facebook mention, email from your mom, outbid on Ebay), automatically turn on the A/C when I'm 5 minutes from getting home (heck just connect the A/C to the weather outside), etc...
Yeah the blinking colored lights for tons of things, if you really get into this, how do you know if you missed that phone call when your stocks are in deep red while you were tagged on Facebook and storm is coming?
I like my lamps to light my home when its dark, not turn it in a disco,.. And how would this build up with multiple users in the house that may or may not be at home,... Granted there can be nice applications but it can also be really intrusive, something niche exactly,..
I think the almond can provide smart a/c / heating control on its own, with the weather already in place in the almond and the app gets geofencing capabilities. (Don't know if there are already plans for this? Lars?)
Like I said, it's not about communicating sensor to sensor, its about connecting the outside world to your sensors. This allows your imagination to really open of to the options. A lot of them will some pointless to some, but amazing to others.
I still think many, if not most ifttt functions can, over time, be done better and safer with the almond+, sucurifi cloud and almond app. I consider myself quite open-minded to (new) tech and options, but I can't help this silly feeling with ifttt,..
Personally I'd love to see where securifi is heading without ifttt and would not be disappointed if it was never realized.