Create and manage Routines in Google Home

Routines are a series of actions for your home devices that help you and your household automate tasks throughout the day. For example, when you say, “Hey Google, good morning,” Google Assistant then turns on your compatible smart lights, tells you about the weather, lists your calendar events, and plays the news.

Create a Personal Routine for your specific needs or a Household Routine for everyone in your home.

Important: All household members can check when these Routines run. Routines are for convenience only, not safety- or security-critical use cases. Don't create Routines that could result in injury or harm if they fail to start or stop. Routines can depend on working internet, Wi-Fi, and service availability from both Google and the third parties who manufacture the devices included in Routines. Routines may not always work, and Google isn't responsible for any harm or losses incurred due to failed Routines.

Routines are only available in select regions and languages.

Create a Routine

Important: If you set up Digital Wellbeing, Routines might be restricted by Downtime, filters, or Do Not Disturb. You can create a Routine for yourself or everyone in your home.

Create a Personal Routine

Important: To get results like calendar events and commute info, you must turn on personal results.

Open the Google Home app .
Tap Automations Add select Personal.
To name your Routine, tap Untitled.
- If you add a voice starter before you name your Routine, the voice starter becomes the name.
Add the starters and actions you want.
Note: If your Routine is set to start automatically and includes actions with audio, specify the device you want the audio to play on. At the bottom, tap Play on select a device tap Done.
Tap Save.

You can find your new Routine in the list under "Personal Routines." This list also includes some ready-made Routines that you can edit.

Note: If you can't create or run Routines, you may need to change the language of your phone to one that is supported for your region.

"I'm home" and "Leaving home" are both ready-made Personal Routines that don't use presence sensing. To create Household Routines that start when everyone's away or someone comes home, set up Home & Away Routines.

Some examples of Personal Routines:

Starter	Action
Say “Hey Google, let’s go home.”	Assistant gives a traffic update, reads your texts, and plays a podcast.
Say “Hey Google, bedtime.”	Assistant sets an alarm, turns off the lights, and plays sleep sounds.
You dismiss your morning alarm.	Assistant tells you about events on your calendar, the day’s weather, and your commute to work.

Create a Household Routine

Open the Google Home app .
Tap Automations Add select Household.
To name your Routine, tap Untitled.
- If you add a voice starter before you name your Routine, the voice starter becomes the name.
Add the starters and actions you want.
Note: If your Routine is set to start automatically and includes actions with audio, specify the device you want the audio to play on. At the bottom, tap No device for audio, select a device and tap Save.
Tap Save.

You can create a household Routine to:

Turn a light, plug, camera, or switch on or off at a specific time every day.
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%.

Note: Home & Away Routines have different setup steps than other Household Routines.

Create and edit advanced home automations using additional starters, actions, and conditions with script editor. Learn more about the script editor and how to create advanced Routines. Learn how to set up Home & Away Routines.

Manage a Routine

Note: To manage a third-party app automation, use the app that created it. Learn more about third-party app automations in the Google Home app.

Edit a Routine

Open the Google Home app .
Tap Automations select the Routine you want to edit.
Edit your Routine:
- To edit a starter or an action: Tap it.
- To add a voice command starter: Tap Add starter When I say to Google Assistant.
- To add a non-voice command starter: Tap Add starter a non-voice starter.
- To add an action: Tap Add action.
Tap Save.

Create a shortcut for a Routine

With an Android phone or tablet, you can add a shortcut to the Home screen that you can tap to run your Routine.

Open the Google Home app .
Tap Automations .
Select the Routine you want to create a shortcut for.
At the top right, tap Create a Home screen shortcut .
Tap Add to Home screen.

Pause a Routine

If you don't want a Routine to run for a period of time, you can turn it off temporarily.

Open the Google Home app .
Tap Automations .
Select the Routine you want to pause.
At the top, turn off Activate Routine.
At the bottom right, tap Save.

Note: Home & Away Routines can't be paused, but you can turn off presence sensing so they won't start automatically.

Delete a Routine

Important: Deleting a Routine or automation is permanent. To stop a Routine or automation temporarily, pause it instead.

Open the Google Home app .
Tap Automations .
Select the Routine you want to delete.
Tap Delete Delete routine.

Note: Home & Away Routines can't be deleted. However, you can turn off presence sensing and remove all device actions. Learn how to change Home & Away Routines settings.

Learn about the types of Routines

Personal Routines

Personal Routines help you automate tasks throughout your day. For example, Assistant can play the morning news when you dismiss an alarm.

Only you can create, edit, and start Personal Routines for yourself.
Only you can check when your Personal Routine runs in My Activity.
Get personal results, like events and reminders from your calendar.

Household Routines

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.

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.

Note: You might find automations created with compatible third-party apps. You can check and start third-party automations in the Google Home app, but you can't edit or delete them. Learn more about third-party app automations in the Google Home app.

Learn about starters and actions for Routines

The starters and actions available for a Routine depend on the type of Routine, connected devices, settings, and other limitations.

Create and edit advanced home automations using additional starters, actions, and conditions with script editor. Learn more about the script editor and how to create advanced Routines.

Ways to start a Routine

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 Personal Routine when you dismiss an alarm on your speaker, Smart Display, or in the Clock app.
When a device does something: Start a Household 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 or Google Home for web: Start a Routine when you tap Play next to the name of the Routine in the Google Home app.

Actions you can add to 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 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.
Custom actions: Enter a command that works with Google Assistant.

Tip: Some actions aren't available because two-factor authentication is required.

If your preferred starters or actions don't show up, learn why they might be unavailable.

Fix issues with Routines

If you’re having issues with the creation or management of your Routines, learn how to troubleshoot your Google Home automations.

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