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Gmail App Changes Will Cause Most IFTTT Features To Stop Working (extremetech.com)

Almost all of Gmail's IFTTT routines and actions will stop working at the end of the month as Google alters the Gmail API to make it more secure. The only functionality of IFTTT-Gmail integration will be sending yourself an email and sending an email to someone else. TechSpot reports: The roots of this problem reach back to a breathless report in the Wall Street Journal in the summer of 2018 that claimed Gmail app developers have been reading your email. What it actually meant was that Gmail's OAuth account access was too simple -- if you allowed an application to access to Gmail, it had access to all of it. Even apps that didn't need the full text of emails for their intended function would have access to that after you signed in. Google began tightening access to Gmail content for third-party apps, and that's where IFTTT comes in.

As of March 31, Google is placing new restrictions on Gmail apps. Apps can no longer read, create, or modify message bodies. None of IFTTT's seven Gmail triggers will work anymore after the new API rules go into effect. In conversations with Google, IFTTT was able to keep two of the Gmail actions: sending yourself an email and sending an email to someone else. However, the trigger needs to be from another service. You can log into your IFTTT account to see which of your Applets are affected by the change. The new API rules only affect Gmail. Other G Suite services like Google Drive and Assistant will remain operating normally.

47 comments

  1. "sending yourself an email and sending an email to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "sending yourself an email and sending an email to someone else"? What? So in other words: sending e-mails?! Why type everything in the most convoluted, vague, fucking stupid manner possible?

  2. If This Then That by wolfheart111 · · Score: 2

    Had to google it... sounds really interesting. "helps your apps and devices work together in new ways"

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    1. Re:If This Then That by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same, I was sweating the loss of my geek card. TF is IFTTT!? I'm getting old!

    2. Re:If This Then That by WankerWeasel · · Score: 1

      It's been around for years. I've never found it super useful but I know many do. It's similar to Zapier.

    3. Re:If This Then That by Shikaku · · Score: 2

      The main reason I use it is just this one service by itself: https://ifttt.com/applets/1952...

      That one automatically puts in your Google calendar the expected delivery date of every product ordered.

    4. Re:If This Then That by jrumney · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "helps your apps and devices work together in new ways"

      ...as long as they use modern IoT/app http based protocols, and not the old-fangled purpose built protocols like IMAP, which could probably cover most of what Google is taking away, but is not trendy enough for modern developers to bother with.

    5. Re:If This Then That by jrumney · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Google Inbox did that as well - it too is going away at the end of the month.

    6. Re:If This Then That by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      IFTTT, ie, bringing scripting to the masses. But they DO manage all passwords and keys. I'm REALLY not a fan of how opaque and proprietary the actual scripts are... namely because they would handle all my passwords and keys...

      Also, I have a general distrust of any product or website that is ambiguous about just what the fuck it is that they do. Like "helps your apps and devices work together in new ways".... what an amazing non-answer. And the first I ran into this I fought for about 30 minutes just clicking around their webpage before something finally made it clear.

      This is Slashdot though, take a couple hours and learn how to make a cronjob and bash script that can do everything that ifttt can do.

    7. Re:If This Then That by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      That functionality has been integrated into Gmail. It does it for flights and other bookings too.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  3. wtf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    WTF is IFTTT?

    1. Re:wtf by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Who knows? But it is going to stop working less than ever before!

  4. App != API by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gmail App is not changing, as the title suggests.
    Gmail API will change.

  5. Re:Fuck off with the IFTT advertising by Shikaku · · Score: 1

    https://hardware.slashdot.org/... this is the last time it was mentioned: over a year ago. I'm not sure where you are getting this idea from.

  6. oauth by dissy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A very important detail was left out of the slashdot summary:

    When IFTTT launched, it developed many of the service integration in-house. In more recent years, most integrations are maintained by the companies that run the services. In the case of Gmail, IFTTT looked at how it might be able to retain the email scanning functionality itself, but it would have required major changes to the IFTTT platform. Maintaining full integration would have been unsustainable for IFTTT, so itâ(TM)s disabling most of the Gmail features.

    So raise your hand if you ever setup a procmail filter on your email that, based on some rules, pipes the email into a program.

    That end-result type function is the only thing being broken here, and being broken by IFTTT not Google.
    IFTTT claims if they can't root through your Gmail account unfettered, it's too difficult for them to act based on your rules.

    What's ironic is if I wanted this ability, my first thought would be adding a Gmail filter with those rules to forward the email elsewhere.
    That elsewhere would then trigger simply by the fact it is getting an email sent to it with a google signature.

    There's no reason IFTTT can't do the exact same setup and let the end-user forward the emails to trigger on without having the ability to do anything and everything with your Gmail account.

    I refuse to believe adding a forward in Gmail would be beyond anyone that is using IFTTT already, so "it isn't easy enough" is an awful excuse when you take the full picture in mind:
    "It's not easy enough to forward an email, so if we can't root through everything in your account, then we refuse to play"

    1. Re:oauth by jrumney · · Score: 2

      If you want to do automated stuff using email, and don't want to maintain your own mailserver and procmail scripts, you are better off setting up an address that goes through an inbound routing API provider such as mailgun or sendgrid rather than trying to scrape webmail from a company that is known for withdrawing useful services at the drop of a hat.

    2. Re:oauth by swillden · · Score: 1

      I don't think there's any risk that Gmail will drop support for mail filtering rules that forward email. Or for POP3 or IMAP4, if you want to use those mechanisms.

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  7. Summary is confusing: IFTTT is not part of Gmail by Lanthanide · · Score: 4, Informative

    The summary reads like IFTTT is a feature of Gmail.

    It's the other way around, an app called If This Then That (IFTTT) has Gmail integration functionality that is going to stop working because of changes Google is making to Gmail's API and the IFTTT developers are incapable of finding a workaround for these changes (note: that's not the same as saying workarounds don't exist).

  8. new or old cruft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Odd how major companies use in one form, a service of if then script interpreters without complaint, but would never use the same structure if the underlying technology was Bash scripts.

    Guess it's a new crop of developers with minimal computer history knowledge repeating and relearning dead ends of the past.

    Glint of the day: Solution should be stated in today's technology and should be at least enumerable in 20 year old technology on a white board. A sanity check that you have solved the business problem first and not just thrown technology and patterns at it.

  9. Should have used IFATA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LUDDITE IFTTT only supports LUDDITE software. Modern app appers use If App Then App!

    Apps!

  10. Jesus Christ just pay for your email own already by DogDude · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Even if you think that Google doesn't actively read, harvest, and sell your email, why even take the chance? Awesome private, personal email is like $3/month.

    If your life is so carefree that all of your email isn't worth $3/month, then congratulations to you. I have things like mortgages and bank accounts that I need to keep private, at the very least.

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  11. Re:Summary is confusing: IFTTT is not part of Gmai by tero · · Score: 2

    Thanks. I was wondering what the hell IFTTT was. Never used it.

  12. FFS editors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A definition for IFTTT wouldn't have gone astray....

  13. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The only thing my bank accounts ever send is occasional spam.

  14. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by redback · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If your bank is sending private info via email you need a new bank.

  15. Good by johnsie · · Score: 2

    Why would you have any company so much access into your accounts anyway?

  16. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by mlw4428 · · Score: 1

    My bank has a special feature that masks routing and account numbers. The routing number shows up as ######### and my account number shows ups ############. Weird, it even works on Slashdot.

  17. IFTTT? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A very important detail was left out of the slashdot summary:

    What the heck is IFTTT?

  18. Re:Summary is confusing: IFTTT is not part of Gmai by kaizendojo · · Score: 1

    And also not mentioned; this affects Stringify as well.

  19. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have chosen for my bank to email my credit amount when I receive income, or when it drops too low.
    That is for me an acceptable ease/privacy tradeoff I made myself.
    But in that case, it of course still helps to have an email account that is not datamined.

    For less than €1/month total, I have my own domain including (imap+smtp) email at gandi.net, which at least has a much better reputation regarding privacy than Google. And if they ever fuckup, I can transfer my domain to somewhere else, while keeping the exact same email address.

  20. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some bank is sending me information about deposits and withdrawals to an account.

    Twist: It isn't my account. None of the account details match me, and the bank is in a different country. As far as I can figure, someone mistyped an email address.

    Contacting the bank about this obvious error has been futile - my emails just go into the void. Their website reporting function also goes into the void.

  21. Re:"sending yourself an email and sending an email by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

    Because they are separate permissions. Same reason that you might say a user has read and write permissions to a directory as opposed to access.

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  22. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hate to burst your bubble, but it is seriously unlikely that ANY email is truly private. Unless all your traffic is encrypted and you're running the server(s) yourself, *someone* is reading them.

    Your $3/month provider may claim your mail is kept private, but Facebook makes a lot of privacy claims too.

  23. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your bank account number is "hunter2"?

  24. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    sell your email

    Don't suppose you have any evidence of that do you? Like an auction page where I can bid for people's email or something?

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  25. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I didn't even know hunter2 was a valid account number...

  26. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

    there is such a thing as private email. ProtonMail comes to mind as an easy version but even besides that, there's truly private email. It's highly unlikely any of you are using it, yet it's been around since at least 1992. With all the asshattery going on, I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes mainstream in the near future, warts and all.

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    The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  27. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by swillden · · Score: 1

    With all the asshattery going on, I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes mainstream in the near future, warts and all.

    Really, you wouldn't be surprised? I'd be shocked.

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  28. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

    Even if you think that Google doesn't actively read, harvest, and sell your email, why even take the chance? Awesome private, personal email is like $3/month.

    I started working on my own email server. Then I noticed in my address book that most my contacts use gmail so google gets a copy anyways.

    I guess I could set up my own email server and refuse to email anyone using gmail, but then I wouldn't have any people left to email.

  29. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by DogDude · · Score: 1

    No, if you want to be an amoral dickhead, you'll have to do that without my help.

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    I don't respond to AC's.
  30. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by DogDude · · Score: 1

    I email tons of people and organizations that don't use GMail. It sounds like you probably don't need private email.

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  31. Re:Jesus Christ just pay for your email own alread by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    I was actually questioning if your claim is true. You keep saying that Google sells personal information and people's email, but never provide any evidence and strangely Google never advertises such a product or makes it discoverable via search.

    Then again given that it would be illegal and land Google staff in jail, I can see why they would keep it on the down-low.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  32. Re:How about "In interesting new ways..." by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    Does that work 4 U

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