Where is the delay in the IFTTT chain

[jdeacon]

I'm using IF This Then That to email my shopping list to myself. (The Alexa app is slow enough anyway. When my supermarket's wifi is down, it's hopeless. I can easily read an email though.)

There was a warning about the time that IFTTT recipe required. But when I first started, the email would get to me about the same time I got to the shops. Now the email is getting to me ten minutes after I get back from the shops.

I was wondering where the delay was - Alexa, IFTTT or Gmail. As I'm write this, however, I realize that the late emailed shopping list has just the items that were left after I'd shopped. (The wifi and the Alexa app were working and I was ticking off the items.)

So I guess the delay is at Amazon's end rather than anywhere else.

Thought I might as well post the post now I've written it.

[fstbusa]

likely no way to tell.  Have you checked the timestamp on the email you received?

[coyote]

There is a solution to your problem: TODOIST

I was using a different list app prior to acquiring an Echo Dot. But the process of having Alexa email the list via an ifttt trigger was onerous. It sends the list out as a text file, and then you have to go to the inbox of the list app and parse that email out into the correct list. Spending large chunks of time administering lists is the opposite of an effective list process.

Meanwhile, Todoist is there with excellent integration. Tell Alexa "put peanut butter on the shopping list" and within a few seconds any mobile devices running Todoist and linked to that account are updated.

There is another integrated app, called any.do. It looks great and actually combines shopping and to-do lists in one widget on your mobile device. It would be my choice, except that it refuses to update. The support for that product says "if it is not updating, log out and log back in". But that is also IMO the opposite of effective list management. Especially when Todoist just flat-out works and has good Alexa integration.

[renegade600]

I think the

I'm using IF This Then That to email my shopping list to myself. (The Alexa app is slow enough anyway. When my supermarket's wifi is down, it's hopeless. I can easily read an email though.)

There was a warning about the time that IFTTT recipe required. But when I first started, the email would get to me about the same time I got to the shops. Now the email is getting to me ten minutes after I get back from the shops.

I was wondering where the delay was - Alexa, IFTTT or Gmail. As I'm write this, however, I realize that the late emailed shopping list has just the items that were left after I'd shopped. (The wifi and the Alexa app were working and I was ticking off the items.)

So I guess the delay is at Amazon's end rather than anywhere else.

Thought I might as well post the post now I've written it.

I have the same problem.  I have the shopping list text to google voice so I can get it as text on my watch.  I have tried other ifttt shopping lists in the past to get the email but like you, it took a while.  I tried just about all of them and the same problem.  I think the problem is with ifttt but at the same time, it could also depend how often your smartphone checks for new emails. 

what I do now, is to give the command about an hour before going shopping. 

[jdeacon]

There is a solution to your problem: TODOIST

I'm already using Wunderlist. There is an IFTTT for Alexa shopping list item to Wunderlist but the only choice when it arrives at Wunderlist is the inbox and not the shopping list. And whatever delays IFTTT+"read the shopping list" will almost certainly delay IFTTT+"add to shopping list".

Wunderlist say they won't be following Todoist and Any.do with direct support for Alexa. So I'll take a look at these alternatives.

All I can say from the logs is that it isn't a gmail delay; it's IFTTT or Alexa. As the IFTTT applet even says "can be delayed by up to an hour", it seems the most likely culprit. Not all the IFTTT applets say that however. I wonder if home automation IFTTTs get these delays. That would render it pretty useless in that area.

[coyote]

The HA automations happen almost instantly, a few seconds delay at most.