Use Home Automation to Make Your Google Home Smarter
Automation truly is the best part of smart home hubs, and Google Home has one of the best automation engines . Simply put, this automation allows you to set a trigger and a resulting action, such as “At 10:00 pm, turn off the speakers” or “When I say, “Let there be light,” turn on all the home appliances.” lights”.
If you’ve only been setting up personal routines, you probably thought your only option for triggers were the limited options offered for time, voice command, or location. These basic steps are great for most of your needs, but at some point you’ve probably wondered how to set up automation based on the status of another device in your home. For example: “When the TV turns on, turn off the reading lights.” The secret is to use Google Home for household chores instead of personal ones.
What Triggers You Can Use with Google Home Personal Automation
Personal automation is a great way to get comfortable with basic routines and consider four different criteria as a trigger for automation:
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“When you use a specific phrase in Google Assistant”: You can set several options and options for this, which is really useful. You should almost always set a verbal signal like this in addition to any other triggers so that you can trigger the automation on the fly if necessary.
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“Specific time of day”: on any days of the week that you choose.
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Sunrise or Sunset: You can move this trigger to any time before or after. For example: “Perform this procedure three hours before sunrise on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.”
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“When you arrive or leave a specific location”: Google uses your phone’s location to determine this, which is most useful in automating your home and work.
How to Use a Google Automation Setup Using Device State as a Trigger
By choosing the Household procedure instead of Personal when setting up a new automation system, you are given an additional trigger option called When the device does something. If you click on this launch condition and open it, you should see each device connected to Google Home and a limited set of conditions associated with each device. For example, lights and plugs usually have an “on” and “off” state. Some light sources may also have brightness and color options. A thermostat or thermometer will most likely have temperature listed as an option. Speakers can have volume as an option. You can explore these options to set conditions that will trigger additional actions.
Set up a simple device trigger
I’ve read a number of arguments that a night light is a great example of automation. Let’s say you have a motion or presence sensor in the corridor, and in the same corridor – a night light or adjustable light. Now you can tell Google Home, “When the sensor detects someone, turn the hallway lights to 10%.” You can narrow it down to the time of day and certain days of the week. So: “When the sensor detects someone between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am, turn on the hallway light to 10%,” which will prevent Google Home from dimming the lights during the day.
Some rules to remember when setting up automation
This is a really powerful application of automation, but you need to keep a few rules in mind. This requires all devices in question to be connected to Google Home, meaning the device itself must have smart functionality or possibly be connected to a smart plug. This also means that if you remove the device or it goes offline, the automation will not work. Finally, since these devices are powered by Wi-Fi and electricity, if your Wi-Fi goes out, the automation won’t work. This may not seem like a big deal since the lights can’t turn on without electricity anyway, but let me imagine a scenario: Let’s say I have a sump pump running on automation and the Wi-Fi goes out for a while. This can be problematic and you won’t be able to fix the problem with smarter technology (like a leak detector) because the problem is with your Wi-Fi. In this case, water continues to accumulate, but is not pumped out. It is important to remember this, for example, if you use automation while out of town.
Overall, automation is still a great way to make your life more efficient and comfortable, and your home more affordable. Just be aware of the limitations of the technology to avoid overconfidence.