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

Posted by BeauHD on from the heads-up dept.

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.

11 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. 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"

    --
    [($)]
    1. 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.

    2. 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.

    3. 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.

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

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

  3. 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.

  4. 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).

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. Good by johnsie · · Score: 2

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