Ploymint

In the booming world of web and mobile apps, two things trump everything else: integration and development. Developing apps is hard and frequently expensive work, which is why it’s usually left to large companies with deep pockets. And for that reason it’s no surprise that users often have great ideas without the means to execute them.

As for integration: we just want stuff to work together. Ever notice how annoying it is to click a link

Zapier, a subscription service pronounced like it’s spelled, is a newish product aimed at bridging this gap between consumers and the web apps we rely on. The idea is simple: users can automate tasks between apps, which allows one task to prompt another. Let’s say, for example, that you use Google Calendar to schedule meetings but allow clients to schedule one-on-one time upon request. You could use a web app like Google Spreadsheet as a signup portal and elect Zapier to automate a task in which every time a new meeting is logged on Spreadsheet a corresponding event is added to your Calendar. Essentially, Zapier functions on a simple “if A then B” structure, and each automated task is called a “Zap.” The big sell is that users don’t need to do any programming themselves to automate the action, and for a productivity tool that’s specifically aimed at businesses, that can mean a big money money saver.

With all that in mind, we’ve rounded up a dozen of the best Zapier Zaps. (Because they don’t technically have names, the Zaps—again, just a name for an automated action between two or more apps—listed here are described in a short sentence or two, some of which have been provided by Zapier themselves. Relevant apps are listed in brackets while the source of each Zap is hyperlinked.)

• “Spread a Message: Route posts from an RSS feed to your social channels.” [RSS, Facebook, Twitter] via
• “Build an Email List: Send email addresses from signup forms to MailChimp.” [Spreadsheets, Facebook, MailChimp] via
• “Turn Emails Into Tasks: Transform your starred Gmail messages into to dos.” [Gmail, task apps] via
• “Make Surveys Personal: Send thank-you messages to SurveyMonkey respondents.” [SurveyMonkey, Gmail] via
• “Remember Your Notes: Never forget to act on the ideas you jot down.” [Evernote] via
• “Save new Typeform entries to a Google Sheets spreadsheet.” [Typeform, Google Sheets] via
• “Save new Eventbrite attendees to a Google Sheets spreadsheet.” [Eventbrite, Google Sheets] via
• “When a new payment is made in FreshBooks, wait one month, then automatically create a Trellow card.” [Freshbooks, Trello] via
• “Track calls with clients: When you receive a new call with CallTrackingMetrics, automatically find the caller in Clio and update the person’s record with details from the call.” [CallTrackingMetrics, Clio] via
• “Create new Salesforce leads from new emails parsed by Mailjet.” [Salesforce, Mailjet] via
• “Have the responses from an email survey you conducted put into their appropriate columns in a Google Sheet.” [Mailjet, Google Sheet] via
• “Post new flagged Disqus comments to Slack [conversation].” [Disqus, Slack] via