The best thing about smart voice assistants is their ability to automate some of our daily tasks. Google can turn lights on and off at certain times, set off alarms on certain days of the week, or even learn a series of custom commands based on our interests. In this post you will learn how to take advantage of this great function of Google Assistant, either using the device's preset routines or creating your own.
What are Google Routines?
Routines are the method by which Google Assistant can automate a series of homework, either automatically or from a voice command. Google can group several tasks within the same command, and can execute them in order and automatically if we wish.
You can configure the commands that come presets in the Google app or create your own routines in a personalized way. This function is identical to that of Alexa and is also available in the Apple system, although under the name of 'Shortcuts'. If you're familiar with either of those two systems, Google Assistant works exactly the same.
By default, Google Assistant comes with 6 routines already programmed. They will help us to understand how the system works. Once we have assimilated the concept, we can tweak them and add more things to each of them if we see fit. we will also be able create our routines completely from scratch if in the list we do not have a routine that performs a task similar to what we want.
Limitations of Google Assistant Routines
Before continuing, it should be noted that we must differentiate between Google Assistant for mobile and Google Assistant for Google Nest and Google Home devices. We will be able to execute from our mobile a routine that involves home automation devices, but, for this, it will be necessary that we first have one of those Nest or Home devices in our Wi-Fi network. Otherwise, we will not be able to work on these elements.
Types of Routines in Google Assistant
There are two types of routines in Google devices. Those who run through a voice command and those that are applied Automatic. They are as follows:
Spoken Routines
Have you ever set a reminder on your mobile and have you lost it among the dozens of notifications you receive every day? Well, with the Google Assistant, it is more difficult for you to ignore the notification. The 'Good morning' routine, default in Google Home is perfect to explain this case. If we say to our assistant 'Hey Google, Good Morning', he will reply with information about the weather for that day, he will tell us everything that is on our calendar for that date and the reminders that you also have for the day. Finally, it will notify you if your mobile battery is low and it will tell you the most important news of the day. Could you edit this routine with something extra if you see it necessary. For example, you could replace the daily news with your favorite daily podcast. And so, have breakfast listening to it. As you will have been able to appreciate, you will not have been able to avoid reading your reminders and calendar events —or, at least, you will not have missed it due to the excess of information that we submit to when we use our mobile phones. Routines are great for these types of situations.
On the other hand, you can create your own spoken routines. Suppose you always put the washing machine on a program that lasts an hour and a half. You can create a routine that is called 'I have put a washing machine', and that, automatically, Google puts a timer of 90 minutes after listening to the command. At the end of the countdown, it could tell you the text 'Remember to take the clean clothes out of the washing machine'. Later, we will teach you how to create this same routine step by step. However, once you create two or three different ones, you will be able to program very complex routines almost without realizing it.
Hourly Routines
These routines are executed two forms. By Mountainsto or during the dawn or dusk. However, the most common is to use the time as a reference.
Suppose that every day you go to bed at 0:00 and get up at 7 AM. If the last thing you do every night is turn off the lights in the whole house and the first thing you do in the morning is go into the kitchen… Why turn lights on and off by hand? You can program your Google Assistant so that every night, at 0:00, it turns off all the lights in the house except... the bathroom and your bedroom, for example. And in the morning, it turns on the kitchen automatically.
This is just an idea, but you can create dozens of routines of this type to make your life easier. For example, you can turn off certain lights in the house to indicate that it is already time to sleep. Or you can turn some lamps on automatically before dark, so you don't have to turn lights on manually. You can also program in this way andl wizard volume or even regulate the brightness of your mobile depending on what time of day it is. The possibilities are endless.
How to create your own custom routines on Google Home
Now that we know how routines work, it's time to customize our own automations. To create them, follow the next steps on your mobile:
- Start the google app.
- Click on the picture of your profile in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Go to Settings.
- Go to option Google Assistant.
- Navigate to the option 'routines'.
- A list will appear with the routines already created and some suggestions that Google will give us. To create our own custom commands, we will click on the option 'New' in the upper right corner.
- The routines consist of two parts: the triggers and actions. We will click on the option 'Add first element'.
- Here we will have to choose if our routine will be by voice command or hourly. In my case, I will choose the first option.
- Add the voice command What do you want to tell Google to activate your routine? You can put several similar commands.
- 'Hey Google, I have put a washing machine'
- 'Hey Google, I put the washing machine on'
- 'Hey Google, remind me of washing machine'
- Immediately afterwards, we will get to the Actions. we will play in 'Add action'.
- In this section, you can add as many options as you want. At the very end you will even see an option called 'delay action'. It is used to delay the action of a command in time. For example, if you create a routine to turn off all the lights in the house when you say 'Hey Google, I'm going outside', you can delay turning them off by 5 minutes in case you take a while to leave or if you have to return home the minute after leave because you forgot something. In our example, we will add the timer and the text. We will click on 'Custom Command' and we will write 'Timer 90 minutes'. Then, we will add another action of type 'Communicate and advertise' which will tell us that the washing machine has finished.
- We save and the command it will be ready. The timer will be activated automatically when we tell Google that we have put a washing machine.
As you may have seen, creating routines for Google Assistant is very simple. You can create as many as you need, edit and refine them to your liking. We recommend that you also look at some ideas on the Internet to inspire you when cooking these routines.
What are the best custom routines for Google Assistant?
Finally, here are a few Ideas to automate your Google Routines and make your life a little easier. These three that we are going to show you are quite basic, but very useful to gain fluency:
Automate device tone at bedtime
Establish a hour as limit, such as 23:00. As an action, put your Google Home or Google Next devices at low volume and put in silence tu . As an addition, you could make relaxing music play through the speakers (the assistant itself integrates its own sounds to sleep, very useful in this case). You can combine this routine with another contrary to put the mobile on sound and turn up the volume of the attendees at the time you want in the morning.
automatic temperature
It will depend on the devices you have. In the more complex case, you can program an air conditioner intelligent by establishing one or several routines per hour based on multiple parameters, such as the time or data collected from a smart thermostat.
If you only have one radiator of a lifetime, you can also program it, even if it is not smart. You just have to use a smart plug and create a routine so that the radiator turns on or off (cutting the current) at certain times of the day. With this simple routine, you won't have to wait until you're cold to turn on the stove.
GPS mode in the car
You get in the car and it takes two minutes between putting the list of Spotify and open Google Maps to put the browser. With a single voice routine you can do these two things—and as many as you can think of—automatically.