Automations are really the best part of smart home hubs, and Google Home has one of the best automation engines out there. In the simplest terms, these automations allow you to set a trigger and a resulting action, like, “At 10 p.m., turn off the speakers,” or, “When I say, ‘let there be light,’ turn on all the household lights.”
If you’ve only set up personal routines, you probably thought the only option for triggers were the limited options offered around time, voice command, or location. These basic actions are great for most of your needs, but at some point, you likely found yourself wondering how to set up automations that were based around another home device condition. For instance, “When the TV turns on, turn off the reading lights.” The secret is using Google Home household routines instead of personal routines.
What triggers you can use with Google Home personal automations
Personal automations are a great way to get into basic routines and allow for four different criteria as a trigger for automations:
“When you use a specific phrase to Google Assistant”: You can set multiple options and variants for this, which is really useful. You should almost always set a verbal cue like this in addition to any other triggers, so you can run an automation on the fly if you need to.
“A specific time of day”: On whatever days of the week you choose.
“Sunrise or sunset”: You can offset this trigger by as much time before or after as you’d like. For example, “Run this routine three hours before sunrise on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”
“When you arrive or leave a specific location”: Google uses your phone’s location to determine this, which is most useful with home- and work-related automations.
How to use set up a Google Automation using a device condition as a trigger
By selecting “Household” routine instead of “Personal” routine when setting up a new automation, you are given an additional trigger possibility called “When a device does something.” If you click on that trigger condition and open it up, you should see every device connected to Google Home and a limited set of conditions related to each device. For instance, lights and plugs have “on” and “off” conditions, usually. Some lights might have dimness and color options as well. A thermostat or thermometer will likely have temperature as an option. Speakers might have volume as options. You can explore these options to set conditions that will trigger additional actions.
Set up an easy device trigger
I’ve read a number of arguments that a night light is the perfect example of an automation. Let’s say you have a motion or presence sensor in your hallway and a nightlight or dimmable light in that same hallway. You can now tell Google Home, “When the sensor senses someone, turn the hallway light on at 10%.” You can narrow it down to a time of day and specific days of the week. So, “When the sensor senses someone between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., turn the hallway lights on at 10%,” which would stop Google Home from dimming your lights during the day.
Some rules to remember when setting up automations
This is a really powerful use of automations, but you have to keep in mind a few rules. It requires that all the devices in question are connected to Google Home, which means the device itself needs to have smart feature, or perhaps is connected to a smart plug. It also means that if you remove a device or it goes offline, the automation won’t work. Lastly, because these devices are powered by wifi and electricity, if your wifi goes down, the automations don’t run. That may not seem like a big deal, since lights can’t turn on without electricity anyway, but let me present a scenario: Let’s say I have a sump pump that’s powered by an automation and the wifi goes off for a period of time. That could be problematic and you couldn’t solve the problem with more smart tech (like a leak detector) since the problem is your wifi. All the while, water is still pooling but not being pumped out. These are important to keep in mind if you’re using automations while out of town, for instance.
All in all, automations are still a brilliant way to help make your life more efficient and comfortable and to make your home more accessible. Just keep in mind the technology’s limitations to avoid over-reliance.
