GO WITH THE MICROSOFT FLOW

Microsoft’s IFTTT rival may be the new kid on the block, but it has much to offer

A s the name suggests, Microsoft Flow aims to smooth the automation of tasks, streamline communication between apps and, most importantly, make power users’ lives easier – without the need for time-consuming scripting.

Released to take on established services such as IFTTT and Zapier, Microsoft Flow is designed to be implemented in businesses of all sizes. It can, therefore, automate jobs involving a wide range of services (110 to be precise), including big names such as SharePoint, Office 365, OneDrive, Dropbox, Gmail, Google Drive, MailChimp, Slack, Todoist, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, as well as comparatively obscure choices such as Toodledo, Typeform, SendGrid and Redmine.

As with IFTTT, you can create your own applets, unappealingly called “Flows”, by picking from a dropdown list of services and “triggers” (for instance, when a file is created in Dropbox) to put together a flow diagram of actions and conditions. To begin, head to

flow.microsoft.com, sign up, click on the My Flows tab and select the “Create a Flow from blank” box. After that, sign in to your chosen services and get cracking.

That said, while the process may sound intuitive and simple, in practice Flows can be somewhat buggy and sometimes leave you scratching your head – an issue compounded by the lack of advice on the website.

Don’t despair: there’s a lorryload of ready-made templates to save the day. Some are less useful than others, but they can be an invaluable resource for doing those small, annoying chores that eat into your day. For example, Microsoft Flow can create Google Calendar notifications for Slack, track your working hours, and let you know when your boss is trying to get in touch.

Moreover, the free version of Flow is generous – 750 automations per month and unlimited Flow creation – although some services are locked off to non-premium users. The paid plan, which starts at £4 per user per month for 4,500 automations, contains Salesforce, Bitbucket, Eventbrite, Harvest, FreshBooks, Stripe and more.

We’ve skimmed the cream of Flow’s template crop to help you forget about mundane digital tasks and focus on the important stuff.

ABOVE RIGHT There’s a wide selection of useful ready-baked templates to choose from

RIGHT The services that integrate with Microsoft Flow include most of the big names, as well as less well-known choices

ABOVE To create your own Flow, pick and mix from the list of services and triggers