Instant Connect ™

Just bought Instant Pot 4 QT. Rio Mini as gift to myself. I downloaded this app thinking it would help me out with using my new appliance. But no, not really. This app doesn’t really help you if you bought a base model like the Rio. If it was a great app, it would allow you to identify exactly what instant pot (s) you have, especially the size (3, 4, 6, 8 qt) and automatically adapt the recipes/cooking methods to reflect that, or allow you to select the size of IP you are cooking with on each recipe, and as I said, adapt the stated amounts for the size of IP so I wouldn’t have to do the calculations. If it was a great app, it would have a base recipe (for instance for steel cut oats) and then also have the other recipes that have the various additives. If it was a great app it would help you create an ingredient shopping list that you could either print out or save to your phone, or even a “My Shopping List” tab, etc. But it doesn’t really have any cool features that are usable for me. I’m probably going to delete the app, as right now I can do better by just googling for recipes, amounts and main ingredients on my phone and writing a shopping list by hand as I had been doing. AI on my phone is far more helpful than this app. Unfortunately.

helpful: shopping list button gives a lot of choices, including dropping it into a new Note, which you can then edit. recipes give a general idea of cooking type and times for many classic dishes. annoying: The few recipes I've tried didn't have accurate times, leaving my brown rice woefully undercooked in one case, and severely overcooking vegetables other times. The layout might be useful in an iPhone, but on an iPad it’s too 'roomy', requiring too many clicks and drags to actually use the recipe. In order to favorite recipe or tag it for later interest, you must create an account and log into it. In most cases trying to send or share recipe only shares a link into the application. I still haven’t figured out what the pencil is supposed to do. I assumed it gave me a way to annotate the recipe but all it does is turn green and I can’t seem to write or type anywhere. stupid: The filters just don’t stick. This isn’t a big deal for someone with an instant pot but if you have one of their other tools you’ll have to wade through a sea of instant pot recipes to see something you actually want, or constantly go back and reenable the device filter. While that's reasonable for the other filters, e.g. cuisine type. the device(s) you have should be a fixed application setting. No way to list a few ingredients you'd like to use up, and get a set of matching recipes. iPad app only works in landscape, leaving even less room to try to read lists or instructions.

I have had a lot of luck with the Instant Pot app. It enables me to save favorite recipes and guides me through the process. The issues that I have with it have to do with ingredient measurements. The units of measure are not clear or consistent. I can usually figure it out, but why would this not be standard and clear, like any other recipe. I have found that some recipe sources are also more reliable than others. Finally, the built in timer feature has not been helpful because it doesn’t take into account preheat time. An added bonus is being able to adjust recipes up and down with the number of servings. The recipe will tell you if your Instant Pot has reached it’s capacity and won’t allow you to go beyond the number of servings it can handle. There are a few flaws, but overall, I like the app.