IFTTT applets retired on Gmail from March 31

Most of the integration of Gmail features in IFTTT are being removed on March 31. IFTTT apps will still be able to send an email, but will no longer be able to trigger actions based on emails received.

Google is removing the means to carry out such actions as a side effect of its larger plans to tighten security. The overall plans were announced back in October when Google said it was reviewing all third party applications to see that they conform to stricter security settings.

The changes were driven by concern that third-party apps could use Gmail’s APIs to gain access to the content and details of Gmail users’ emails. Google then decided to tighten its Gmail policies to prevent this happening, and existing services were given until March 31 2019 to comply. The problem for apps using IFTTT is that the developers of IFTTT say it would be too complicated to comply. In a blog post about the change, the team at IFTTT said that:

The changes were driven by concern that third-party apps could use Gmail’s APIs to gain access to the content and details of Gmail users’ emails. Google then decided to tighten its Gmail policies to prevent this happening, and existing services were given until March 31 2019 to comply. The problem for apps using IFTTT is that the developers of IFTTT say it would be too complicated to comply. In a blog post about the change, the team at IFTTT said that:

“The changes being made to Gmail would have required massive refactoring in how we integrated Gmail with the IFTTT platform. It would have created a lot more overhead than we had before, and the experience for users would have been degraded as a result. These updates would have made continuing to maintain the Gmail service unsustainable.”

Once a service is removed from IFTTT, it will no longer be discoverable on the IFTTT services page. This means that Applets can no longer be created using that service, and all existing Applets using that service will be archived. When triggers or actions are removed, only Applets using those specific triggers or actions are archived. What this means is that any applets created using Gmail triggers will be archived from March 31.

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Last updated on April 1st, 2023