Whitson Gordon
We all love free apps, but it's hard to track when
apps go on sale, and whether they're worth the trouble. Here's a trick
for keeping track of on-sale apps, and making those sales last forever.
We've shared a few tools that help you track app sales,
but they can be a pain. A lot of the apps that go on sale aren't very
good, and while you can make a wish list, this doesn't help you discover
new apps at all. Of course, we occasionally share cool apps in our
Dealhacker posts, but what if you could get automatic email notifications for cheap,
good apps whenever they went on sale? Here's a method—inspired by this Reddit post—to make that a reality.
Step One: Set Up App Deal Notifications with IFTTT
Previously mentioned IFTTT
is an awesome webapp that lets you perform a certain action whenever
the webapp detects something you tell it to monitor. Today, we're going
to tell it to email us every time it detects an app deal we like. Here
are a few example recipes you can use to achieve this:
- Notifications for Lifehacker's Dealhacker Posts:
Here at Lifehacker, we constantly monitor app deals so you don't have
to wade through them all the time, sharing our favorite useful and
productive apps whenever they have a significant drop in price. This
recipe, which you can grab here, emails you every time we post a new Dealhacker post so you can stay on top of our favorite apps.
Notifications for iTunes' Free App of the Week: This recipe, which you can get here, sends you an email whenever the @AppStore Twitter account tweets with the #FreeAppoftheWeek, notifying you of that week's free app on iTunes..- Notifications for Amazon's Free App of the Day: Amazon's free app of the day isn't always as good as Apple's, but if you wan to keep track, this similar IFTTT recipe can help. It emails you each of @AmazonAppADay tweets its deal of the day.
Those
are just a few examples—you can create as many as you want in IFTTT,
and for whatever services or deals you want to follow. This system not
only saves you money, but helps you notice apps you wouldn't have
otherwise tried out. If you're going to do email notifications, though, I
recommend you create a filter for emails from IFTTT so your inbox isn't
flooded with notifications.
Step Two: Download Free Apps Whenever Possible, So They Stay Free Forever
Once
you have that set up, the rest is easy: When you see an app that's on
sale for free, download it, even if you don't think you want it right
now. Why? Because once you download an app, it's linked to your account,
and you'll be able to download it for free forever—even if the app goes
back to its regular price! Redditor
TreyF explains:
The free app this week is Kayak Pro.
It's a travel app with a lot built in (baggage fee calculator,
itinerary settings, terminal maps) and you can search for travel related
deals. It's normally $.99 but this week it's free.
I know what you're thinking. "I'm not doing any traveling soon".
This
is the beauty of iOS. Download the free app, and delete it. When you
know you're going to travel, go into your recently purchased apps and
re-download it. It will be free and won't take up space until you need
to download it.
You don't need to download
every
app you see, just the ones that you might want down the road—the ones
that are popular, come highly recommended by your favorite tech blog
(ahem), and so on. It's especially handy when you think an app has
potential, but would be better with a couple extra features—if and when
they improve the app, you'll be able to grab it for free. And if not,
you've only wasted a couple seconds attaching it to your account. As
long as you delete it, it won't even clutter up your phone.
Lets check it : http://
lifehacker.com/
