We have just released TalkBack - a ThingSpeak App that allows devices to check ThingSpeak for commands to execute. TalkBack is perfect for battery-powered devices that need to sleep most of the time and wake up to see if there is anything to do and then go back to sleep, like a door lock for example. The lock is mostly going to be asleep to save battery power, but it can way up periodically and check TalkBack or be woken up by a button press to see if it should be opened or not.
Devices powered by ThingSpeak and now with TalkBack will be able to both push sensor data to the ThingSpeak Cloud and check TalkBack if any commands are available all in one request.
To get started, we have the complete TalkBack API Documentation (TalkBack App - MATLAB & Simulink) and an Arduino Yún Tutorial (Controlling the Arduino Yún with TalkBack – About Things | A Hans Scharler Blog) available now.