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. Only people in the home with Admin access or Members with Settings permission can create and manage routines. To learn more about access levels and permissions, refer to Manage people and permissions in the Google Home app.

For example, you can create:

A personal routine that starts 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.
A household routine that makes an announcement at a certain time of the day on your chosen home devices.
A household routine where Google Home turns on your connected porch light and sets the thermostat to 23°C (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'.

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 selected regions and languages.

For Android users in the US who are enrolled in Public Preview, the steps to create and edit household routines may differ. Check Manage smart home automations in Google Home for more information.

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.
Tip: If you add a voice starter before you name your routine, the voice starter becomes the name.
Add your preferred starters and actions.
If your routine is set to start automatically and includes actions with audio, specify the device that you want the audio to play on. At the bottom, tap Play on, select a device, then tap Done.
Tap Save.

You can find your new routine in the list under 'Personal routines'. This list also includes some pre-made routines that you can edit.

If you can't create or run routines, you'll need to change the language of your phone to one that is supported for your region. Learn how to fix issues with routines.

'I'm home' and 'Leaving home' are both pre-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	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.
Tip: If you add a voice starter before you name your routine, the voice starter becomes the name.
Add your preferred starters and actions. If your routine is set to start automatically and includes actions with audio, specify the device that 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.
Make an announcement at a specific time.
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%.

Tip: Home and 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 and Away routines.

Manage a routine

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 that 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 for which you want to create a shortcut.
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 that you want to pause.
At the top, turn off Activate routine.
At the bottom right, tap Save.

Tip: 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.

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

Tip: 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 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 check when your personal routine runs in My Activity.
Get personal results, like events and reminders from your calendar.
Receive an announcement at a certain time of the day on your chosen home devices.

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, such as 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.

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 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 manage your personal home and away status manually. 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 that 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.

Related resources

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