Create and manage routines for Google Home automations

Routines in the Google Home app are automations for your home devices that can help you and your household to automate tasks throughout the day.

For example, you can create:

• Personal routines such as one that you start 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 for the day, and plays the news.
• Household routines where Google Home turns on your connected porch light and sets the thermostat to 23.9°C (75°F) every day at sunset or one that starts when someone turns on the living room TV, and then Assistant performs a custom command, such as '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. 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 is not responsible for any harm or losses incurred as a result of any failed routines.

Routines are only available in selected regions and languages.

Learn about the types of routines

Personal routines

Personal routines help you to 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 view when your personal routine runs in My Activity.
• You can get personal results, such as 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 and Away routines.

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.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Automations   Add   select Personal.
3. To name your routine, tap Untitled.
   • If you add a voice starter before you name your routine, the voice starter becomes the name.
4. Add the starters and actions that you want. Note: If your routine is set to start automatically and includes actions with audio, specify the device on which you want the audio to play. At the bottom, tap Device for audio, select a device and tap Save.
5. 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 when someone comes home, set up Home and Away routines.

Some examples of personal routines:

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

Create a household routine

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

For example, 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 colour 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 and Away routines have different setup steps than other household routines.

You can 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 and Away routines.

Manage routines

Edit a routine

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Automations   select the routine that you want to edit.
3. 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 my Assistant.
   • To add a non-voice-command starter: Tap Add starter a non-voice starter.
   • To add an action: Tap Add action.
4. 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.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Automations .
3. Select the routine for which you want to create a shortcut.
4. At the top right, tap Create a home screen shortcut .
5. 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 by deactivating it.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Automations .
3. Select the routine that you want to pause.
4. At the top, turn off Activate routine.
5. At the bottom right, tap Save.

Note: Home and Away routines can't be paused, but you can turn off presence sensing so that 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.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Automations .
3. Select the routine that you want to delete.
4. Tap Delete Delete routine.

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

Learn about starters and actions for routines

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

You can 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 that you choose.
• Sunrise or sunset: Start a routine automatically around sunrise or sunset for the days that you choose.
• When an alarm is dismissed: Start a personal routine when you dismiss an alarm on your speaker or smart display, or in the Clock app.
• When a device does something: Start a household routine when a device does something, such as when a light turns on or a motion sensor detects motion.

• Presence sensing: Start a Home and 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.

Why a starter might be unavailable

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 and Away routines. To start a routine when everyone’s away or when someone comes home, first set up Home and 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 that you add the device to the home for which you want to create a routine. 

Note: You can only use some devices as a starter. Make sure that you add the device to the home for which you're creating a routine.

Actions that you can add to a routine

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 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. Find examples of commands:
  • What you can ask Google Assistant
  • Control smart lights and other devices
  • Add items to a shopping list
  • Listen to news or podcasts

Why an action might be unavailable

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.

Troubleshooting

Can't create or run routines in the Google Home app

Routines are only available in selected regions and languages. To use routines in a supported region, switch your phone's default language to a supported language in that region.

• On most phones, you can change the language in the phone's Settings app. For more detailed instructions, check with your phone's manufacturer.
• The Google Home app may take up to 12 hours to update after you change the language.

Can't find a device in routines starters and actions

If you can't find a device in the available starters and actions for a routine, check that the device is in the same home that you're using for the routine:

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Favourites . At the top, check that you're using the desired home for the routine.
3. Tap Devices . If the device is in 'Local devices' instead of a room, the device may be in a different home.
   1. To move the device to another home, touch and hold the device's tile tap Settings .
   2. Tap Device information Home the name of the home that you're using for the routine.

Note: If your device is in the correct home and isn't included in starters and actions, the device might not be supported for routines at this time.

Available languages by region

Personal routines

Country or region	Supported languages
Argentina	Spanish
Australia	English
Austria	German
Belgium	English, French, German, Dutch
Brazil	Portuguese (Brazil)
Canada	English, French (Canada)
Chile	Spanish
Colombia	Spanish
Denmark	Danish
Egypt	Arabic
France	French
Germany	German
India	English, Hindi
Indonesia	Indonesian
Italy	Italian
Japan	Japanese
Korea	Korean
Mexico	Spanish
Netherlands	Dutch
Norway	Norwegian, Norwegian Bokmal
Peru	Spanish
Poland	Polish
Saudi Arabia	Arabic
Singapore	English
Spain	Spanish
Sweden	Swedish
Switzerland	French, German, Italian
Taiwan	Mandarin (Taiwan)
United Kingdom	English
United States	English, Spanish

Household routines

Country or region	Supported languages
Argentina	Spanish
Australia	English
Austria	German
Belgium	English, French, German, Dutch
Brazil	Portuguese (Brazil)
Canada	English, French (Canada)
Chile	Spanish
Colombia	Spanish
Denmark	Danish
France	French
Germany	German
India	English, Hindi
Indonesia	Indonesian
Italy	Italian
Japan	Japanese
Korea	Korean
Mexico	Spanish
Netherlands	Dutch
Norway	Norwegian, Norwegian Bokmal
Peru	Spanish
Singapore	English
Spain	Spanish
Sweden	Swedish
Switzerland	French, German, Italian
Taiwan	Mandarin (Taiwan)
United Kingdom	English
United States	English, Spanish