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Microsoft’s IFTTT alternative is now open to everyone

Microsoft’s IFTTT alternative is now open to everyone

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Microsoft Flow comes out of beta and is free to use

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Microsoft Flow, the company’s own take on IFTTT, is officially available to the general public after being released in beta back in April. The tool lets you connect cloud services like Slack, G Suite, Twitter, Office 365, and Dynamics 365 to create action “Flows” for the workplace.

A Flow is an action that takes place after something else happens — like having a photo uploaded to Dropbox after emailing it to yourself. Unlike IFTTT, which lets you link two single actions with each other, Microsoft’s version can perform multiple actions in a single Flow. For example, you can choose to have a tweet containing a certain keyword trigger both a push notification and an email simultaneously instead of creating two separate recipes.

Compared to IFTTT, Flow is compatible with fewer third-party apps (58 supported apps to IFTTT’s 366). This makes sense, though, given that Flow is designed to be used at an enterprise level while IFTTT targets Internet of Things users.

Flow is designed to be used at an enterprise level while IFTTT targets Internet of Things users

Flow’s public release also lets system administrators control which apps and services can be used within the company, and which teams or geographic regions specific Flows can be targeted to. Like IFTTT’s Do suite of apps, Flow’s mobile app lets you make buttons that can trigger actions on the go, such as emailing a colleague if you’re running behind to a meeting.

Microsoft Flow is available for free and starts at $5 per user monthly if you want to run Flows more often (the free version limits you to 750 runs per month). It’s being released alongside PowerApps, a business app building tool for non-coders. You can sign up for Flow with any email — no association with Office required.