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Domino’s ‘applets’ let customers turn on porch lights

The tech-forward pizza operator introduces app add-ons in partnership with IFTTT

Domino’s Pizza Inc. customers with smart homes don’t have to get up from the couch when they want to turn on the porch light before the delivery driver arrives.

Now they won’t even need to open a new app.

The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based pizza operator — which operates more like a tech company — said Monday it’s the first restaurant chain to join the IFTTT platform, a free service that lets users create “applets” to control many of their services or devices. 

Photos: Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock, jeka1984/iStock/Thinkstock, ptxgarfield/iStock/Thinkstock; Illustration: NRN/Anna Kang

Domino’s has created several applets to work alongside its app, particularly the Domino’s Tracker.

For instance, Domino’s created an applet that will turn on a customer’s porch light when the Tracker says a pizza is out for delivery.

“We’re empowering customers to unleash their imagination as they create new ways to integrate some of our favorite innovations, like Domino’s Tracker, into their everyday lives,” Dennis Maloney, Domino’s chief digital officer, said in a statement.

Applets can also turn off the sprinklers when the Tracker says a pizza is out for delivery. Customers can also download an applet that will turn on a Samsung Powerbot robot vacuum when their order is being prepared. That way, customers can have a cleaner floor before the driver shows up. Users can also customize their own applets.

IFTTT works alongside several different apps and services, like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Weather Underground and more, to let users create applets that automatically do things on command. Applets can back up photos that users are tagged to on Facebook, or give users a mobile notification when it’s supposed to snow.

Domino’s has been among the most aggressive companies in adding new uses and services alongside its online and mobile ordering technology, enabling customers to order on a smartwatch, over a television or from their cars. 

The services, and Domino’s marketing of them, have helped the chain become one of the hottest restaurant companies in the country. Same-store sales increased 31 percent on a three-year basis in the first three months of the year.

Contact Jonathan Maze at [email protected]

Follow him on Twitter: @jonathanmaze

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