When you create Routines, you and members of your home can get help from Google Assistant with tasks throughout the day. Say a command or perform an action on a supported device and Google Assistant can automatically do multiple actions.
Learn how to set up a routine on your Pixel device with our step-by-step tutorial.
For example, you can create:
- A personal Routine that starts when you say, “Hey Google, good morning,” Google Assistant turns on your compatible smart lights, tells you about the weather, lists your calendar events for the day, and plays news.
- A household Routine where Google Home turns on your connected porch light and sets the thermostat to 75°F everyday at sunset.
- A household Routine that starts when anyone turns on the living room TV, and then Google Assistant performs a custom command, like “Turn on the amplifier.”
Important: All household members can see when these Routines run. Routines are for convenience only, not safety- or security-critical use cases. Do not create Routines that could result in injury or harm if they fail to start or stop.
Who can create & manage Routines
- Personal Routines: You create and edit Routines for yourself.
- Household Routines: Any home member can create and edit Routines that work for everyone in the home.
Important: Some features aren't available in all languages, countries, or eligible Android devices.
Create a Routine
Important: If you set up Digital Wellbeing, Routines might be restricted by Downtime, filters, or Do not disturb.
Tips:
- You can create a Routine for yourself or everyone in your home.
- You can use your voice to create and check Routines with Google Assistant.
Examples
Some examples of personal Routines:
- Starter: Say “Hey Google, let’s go home.”
- Action: Google Assistant gives a traffic update, reads your texts, and plays a podcast.
- Starter: Say “Hey Google, bedtime.”
- Action: Google Assistant sets an alarm, turns off the lights, and plays sleep sounds.
- Starter: You dismiss your morning alarm.
- Action: Google Assistant tells you about events on your calendar, the day’s weather, and your commute to work.
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Home app
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- On the Home screen, tap Routines
New Household.
- Add at least one starter and one action.
- If your Routine is set to start automatically and it includes audio actions, select the audio device.
- At the bottom, tap Device for audio.
- Select the device.
- Tap Save.
- At the bottom, tap Save.
Tip: If you don't find "Routine" on you Home screen, learn why Routines might not show.
Examples
You can create a household Routine to:
- Turn a light, plug, camera, or switch on or off at a specific time every day.
- Make an announcement at a specific time.
- Set your smart lights’ brightness and color when the TV turns on.
- Turn on the entrance light when a motion sensor detects motion, or turn off your lights when no motion is detected for 10 minutes.
- If the doorbell rings in the evening, turn on the porch lights and set the light brightness to 75%.
Manage Routines
If you don't want a Routine to run for a period of time, you can turn it off temporarily.
In the Google Assistant app
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Assistant app
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- At the top right, tap your Profile picture or initial Routines.
- Select the Routine you want to pause.
- At the top, turn off Activate Routine.
- At the bottom right, tap Save.
In the Google Home app
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Home app
.
- On the Home screen, tap Routines .
- Select the Routine you want to pause.
- At the top, turn off Activate Routine.
- At the bottom right, tap Save.
Tip: If you don't find "Routine" on you Home screen, learn why Routines might not show.
Learn about the types of Routines
Personal Routines help you automate tasks throughout your day. For example, Google Assistant can play the morning news when you dismiss an alarm.
For personal Routines:
- Only you can create, edit, and start personal Routines for yourself.
- Only you can view when your personal Routine runs in My Activity.
- You can get personal results, like events and reminders from your calendar.
Household Routines help automate shared home devices for everyone in your home. For example, if you’ve turned on presence sensing for your phone, your cameras turn off automatically when you come home, or when you manually set your home’s status to Home.
For household Routines:
- Only eligible home members with manager access can create or edit a household Routine.
- Anyone in the home, including guests, can start most household Routines.
- All home members can check when a household Routine starts. This info is in the Google Home app, in the Home history.
- They can start when a device turns on or off.
- They can’t give personal results like events or reminders from a home member’s calendar.
- They can start when everyone’s away or when someone comes home. Learn more about Home & Away Routines.
Important: The starters and actions available for a Routine depend on the type of Routine, connected devices, settings, and other limitations.
You can start a Routine when you set a “starter.” For example:
- Voice command: Start a Routine when you say a custom voice command.
- Time: Start a Routine automatically at the time and on the days you choose.
- Sunrise or sunset: Start a Routine automatically around sunrise or sunset for the days you choose.
- When an alarm is dismissed: Start a Routine when you dismiss an alarm on your speaker, Smart Display, or in the Clock app.
- When a device does something: Start a Routine when a device does something, like when a light turns on or a motion sensor detects motion.
- Presence sensing: Start a Home & Away Routine when everyone’s away, when someone comes home, or manually manage your personal home and away status. Learn more about presence sensing.
- Google Home app: Start a Routine when you tap Play
next to the name of the Routine in the Google Home app.
- Arrive at or leave from a location: Start a Routine when you arrive at or leave from a specific location. Learn more about location starter.
A starter might not be available if:
- You haven’t set an address for your home. To use starters based on time, sunrise and sunset, and when someone arrives or leaves a home, you must set an address for your home.
- You already selected a non-voice starter. You can only select one non-voice starter for each Routine.
- You haven’t connected a device that supports the starter. For example, to start a personal Routine when you dismiss an alarm, you must have a speaker, Smart Display, or Smart Clock that you can set an alarm on.
- You haven’t set up Home & Away Routines. To start a Routine when everyone’s away or when someone comes home, first set up Home & Away Routines.
- It affects your safety or security. For example, you can’t use “unlock” to start a Routine, but you can use “lock.”
Tip: Not all devices can be used as starters. Make sure you add the device to the home you want to create a Routine for.
You can have a Routine:
- Adjust home devices: Turn on, turn off, or adjust smart home devices like lights, plugs, switches, or thermostats.
- Play and control media: Play media like music, news, radio, and podcasts.
- Get info and reminders: Get info like the weather, your commute, your calendar events and reminders.
- Communicate and announce: Broadcast messages and send and read texts.
- Adjust Google Assistant volume: Change the volume on your Google Assistant-enabled device.
- Adjust phone settings: For Android devices, adjust the phone volume, get a battery level notification, and turn Do Not Disturb on or off.
- Perform an action based on a command: Enter a command that works with Google Assistant. Find examples of commands:
Some actions might not be available if:
- The action is only available for personal Routines.
- Actions that include personal results, like events from your calendar or your commute time.
- Actions that might reveal personal information, like a broadcast to your home devices or reading a text message.
- Actions that adjust phone settings, like phone volume and battery level notifications.
- You already added a media action. You can only add one media action for each Routine.
- The action affects your safety or security. For example, “unlock” isn’t an available starter, but you can set “lock” as an action.
Tip: Some actions aren’t available because two-factor authentication is required.
Some starters and action combinations might not be available. For example:
- You can only set camera actions when you start at a scheduled time.
- Anything that needs two-factor authentication cannot be used as a starter or action.
- A starter and action combination may not be available because of device or manufacturer limitations.
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Routines.
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next to the name of the Routine in the Google Home app.