How to Set up Your First Google Home Automation

Posted on December 21, 2023 by resourcefulman

In the smart home world, automation is a procedure (or series of commands) that a smart hub application will perform on behalf of the user. For example, you could tell the app, “At sunset, turn on the porch light”; when the temperature sensor exceeds 80 degrees, turn on the fan. One of the more flexible hubs is Google Home, and you can set up these routines from the automation tab in the Google Home app. Here’s how.

Google Home comes pre-configured with several automations.

Google assumes you’ll like some wake-up and sleep routines, so you’ll see “Good Morning” and “Good Night” options in the automation section. If you click on them, the actions will be pre-filled. , allowing you to customize them, like what sleep sounds to play (Google has an impressive array of sounds, from white noise to ocean or forest sounds), what lights to turn off, or whether to make a list of appointments for the day. it’s a useful way to better understand how automation works.

Find out what you want to happen and why

Before you begin, determine what action needs to happen and what should cause it. We’ve already talked about IFTTT (if this, then that) on Lifehacker, another automation platform. But the broader premise of IFTTT is really useful for understanding automation. The title is literally “If this, then that,” as in “If _____ happens, do ______.” So, start by filling in the blanks—time, condition, or a specific day. For the first automation, we’ll focus on specifying when the automation will run, so think about what you want to happen each day. For example: At dawn, turn on the light in the living room. The important thing is that any devices you want to influence must be connected to Google Home, either through a smart plug or through the device itself.

Start new automation

On the Automation tab, click the blue plus sign button to start a new procedure. Since we’re just setting something up to run at a specific time, let’s choose “personal” rather than “home”. The screen will refresh to show a title that you can edit, and two panels: one for “starters” and one for “actions.” You may also see a bar asking if you want to set a routine for the whole day. For now, click “No.”

First, let’s call this procedure something like “Lights on at dawn.” Click on the gray pencil next to “Untitled” and enter what you want to call this procedure. Name it something that briefly describes the procedure so you can easily refer back to it. Click the checkmark in the upper right corner to save the name. .

Select starter

Now click on “Add Starter”. You will see all the options available to you:

When you tell Google a specific phrase, such as “Good morning Google!” or “Turn on the living room light!” I use an exclamation point because with Google it’s almost impossible not to talk this way since you’re essentially talking into the air.
A certain time of day.
Sunrise or sunset you can compensate. For example, an hour before or after sunset.
When you arrive or leave a location, your phone detects your location. This is useful when using automation tools such as: Turn on the lights when I get home.

For now, select At Sunrise or Sunset, then select Sunrise. Google will ask several questions, such as: “Where the hell are you?” Then decide if you want to offset the sunrise and what days of the week you want this routine to run. You can decide whether you want to receive notifications every time a procedure is performed. I usually set this to notify me, just so I know. works and then turn it off after a few days. Now save this trigger by clicking the blue “Set Trigger” button.

Set your action

There are tons of things Google can do for you. Here is a list of what is possible:

“Get information and reminders” such as the weather, time, reminders about what’s on your schedule for the day, what happened that day in history, or news from any source you need.
“Communicate and Announce,” which means Google can send SMS or emails and make announcements on your devices.
“Adjust assistant volume”, which can be useful depending on the time of day. Perhaps set the volume to 10% at night.
“Setting up home devices” is the most likely and important function here. This will allow you to control every device connected to Google Home, and that’s what we’ll use in this example procedure.
“Customize your phone settings” means you can set your phone to Do Not Disturb, change the volume, or, my favorite, turn off the Wi-Fi when I leave the house and turn it back on when I get home.
The Get Health Info feature works if you’ve connected a health device, such as a watch, to Google.
“Play and manage media” allows you to play videos, songs and any other media files from your phone on any device. Keep in mind that Google has favorite devices. It also prefers music from Spotify and videos from YouTube and makes it difficult to play any other services.
“Try adding your own” allows you to try using your own actions, which may or may not work.

In this case, select “Set up home devices.” Find the lights you want to turn on (they should be located by room) and click on each one. You will have options based on this device, which should include “On and Off” but may also include dimming capabilities. Select the indicator you want and set it to On, then save. You can add more than one action for each starter, so if you have multiple indicators, go back and add each one in turn.

Save and check your action

All that remains is to save the new automation. To do this, use the blue “Save” button. The promotion should start tomorrow at the appointed time. To test the automation, go to the routine we just set up in the Automation section and click the play button next to the title. It will do the automation.

Expand Basic Automation Capabilities

Just as you can have more than one action, you can have more than one way to trigger an automation. In particular, setting up voice triggers is not only a fun way to access actions, but also the most accessible way. Go back to Automation, add another starter to your automation and select “When I tell Google Assistant.” Now imagine what you would say to trigger the automation, such as, “Hey Google, turn on the living room lights.” Or maybe “Hey Google, light up the room.” This is something you can have a lot of fun with.

Since you can have many actions, try some complex ones, such as “Good morning” or “Good night”, where several different events are happening at the same time. This is a good way to see what Google Assistant can do for you.

Daytime routines allow you to turn things on and off throughout the day.

Let’s say you have a humidifier and you want to run it for 30 minutes several times a day. Instead of setting an automation to turn it on and then another to turn it off, you can set one routine for the entire day. To do this, when you launch a new automation, say “Yes” to the question “Do you want to set up a daily routine?” Now choose a different start time and activity for each. It works just like the basic automation you’ve set up, except you can customize a variety of trigger times and actions.

Set up a daily routine at home to create even more triggers.

With Google Home, you can set up even more complex triggers using your home routine instead of your personal routine. Household routines can use devices as a trigger, such as when a smart thermostat exceeds a certain temperature, a window air conditioner turns on, or an SMS is sent.

More…

Hardware