Routines in the Google Home app are automations for your home devices that can help you and your household automate tasks throughout the day.
For example, you can create:
- Personal Routines like 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 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, like “Turn on the amplifier.”
Routines are only available in select regions and languages.
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.
Create a Routine
Important: If you set up Digital Wellbeing, Routines might be restricted by Downtime, filters, or Don't disturb.
You can create a Routine for yourself or everyone in your home.
- Open the Google Home app
.
- Tap Automations
Add
- 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
- Tap Save.
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: 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
- Open the Google Home app
.
- Tap Automations
Add
- 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.
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.
Manage Routines
Edit a Routine
- Open the Google Home app
- Tap Automations
- Edit your Routine:
- To edit a starter or an action: Tap it.
- To add a voice command starter: Tap Add starter
- To add a non-voice command starter: Tap Add starter
- To add an action: Tap Add action.
- Tap Save.
Create a shortcut for a 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.
If you don't want a Routine to run for a period of time, you can turn it off temporarily by deactivating it.
- 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
- 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 starters & 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 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.
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 & 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.
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. Find examples of commands:
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
Routines are only available in select 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:
- Open the Google Home app
- Tap Favorites
. At the top, check that you're using the desired home for the Routine.
- Tap Devices
. If the device is in "Local devices" instead of a room, the device may be in a different home.
- To move the device to another home, touch and hold the device's tile
.
- Tap Device information
- To move the device to another home, touch and hold the device's tile
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 |