Zapier's two secret weapons: Tables and Interfaces

Zapier has created 29+ of their own apps that you may not know about. This is purposeful. They hide these apps beneath the logos of their partners so as to not cause a fuss. If Airtable knew Zapier was creating an app to compete with them they may poop their pants. “Zaptable” with 5,000+ integrations would demolish Airtable who only boasts 31 native integrations on their site.

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The big secret? Zapier is already making moves to compete with Airtable, Hubspot, Typeform, Zendesk, Trello, and more.

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to show you the two most powerful Zapier-built apps and why you need to start using them now.

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Zapier’s Own Most Powerful Apps

1. Interfaces (alpha) by Zapier
2. Tables (beta) by Zapier

But first, why should you care?

One reason: with these two Zapier apps you’ll be able to simplify the complex web of apps you have in your tech stack.

Whole Foods sells you a 365-branded Cheerio. Zapier sells you a Zapier-branded Airtable.

And once that Zapier-branded airtable tastes better than the real thing, using it will be a no-brainer.

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Interfaces (alpha) by Zapier

The user interface (UI) of an app is what you interact with. It’s the buttons, the dashboards, the form inputs, the kanban boards. With Interfaces you’ll be able to play with all the data coming in, flowing through, and moving out of Zapier.

• Zapier is building Interfaces so that you can create:
• Forms (like Typeform)
• Kanban boards (like Trello)
• Inboxes (like Zendesk)
• Portals (for your customers)
• Applicant Trackers (like Greenhouse)
• CRMs (like Hubspot)
• And so much more+

The only thing Interfaces is missing is a way to store all the data. They need a database. Allow me to introduce…

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Tables (beta) by Zapier

Just about every app has a database. It’s like a Google Spreadsheet except instead of rows of data, you have clearly defined objects like contacts, campaigns, forms, etc. The data can interact with each other like a group of line-dancin’ Texans. Campaigns can have associated contacts, forms can add submissions as new contacts, etc. It’s called a relational database and it’s what an app needs to act like a grown up.

Zapier’s Tables is not yet a relational database. Although someday it will be. At the moment, it works more like a spreadsheet but with the ability to trigger Zaps.

Once a row of data is connected to a Zap then it can be connected to 5,400+ other apps.

That’s power.

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AI by Zapier (bonus)

This was an easy win for Zapier. Build an app that connects to OpenAI and let it get to work for you. This is built on top of OpenAI so it’s not exactly Table and Interfaces.

• Best to show rather than tell. Here’s what’s possible:
• Send every email you receive into AI by Zapier and then have it send you a daily digest summarizing all the important points of each email.
• Send every new support ticket you receive into AI by Zapier and respond to the customer with the first pass on an answer. Do this within minutes of receiving the support ticket.
• Send new Todoist tasks into AI by Zapier and have it breakdown the task into more actionable steps.
• Every weekday have AI by Zapier send you a motivational quote from your top 10 favorite authors.
• Send your writing into AI by Zapier and have it develop analogies for your examples.
• Instead of using Formatter by Zapier, use AI by Zapier to format things all within one step.
• +

https://twitter.com/podcastharry/status/1633459479122685956

The list literally doesn’t stop.

As every 20-something startup-hopeful in silicon valley stays up all night coding the next AI software to “change the world,” Zapier creates one app and opens up the possibilities for all of its customers to create their own app. Without developers. In minutes.

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Zapier or bust.

Most people use a combination of Zapier, Make, some other integration platform, and native integrations on apps like Airtable. But the problem is that the more places your data lives the more time and effort is required to maintain and update it.

If you start thinking about how powerful it will be to get all your data into one place, you’ll start to understand why you need to start using Zapier’s Interfaces and Tables as soon as possible.

Get early access.

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Happy Building,
Bryce