Automate daily routines and tasks with Google Assistant

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.

For example, you can create:

  • A personal routine that starts when you say, “Hey Google, good morning”, then 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 23°C 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 and 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.
  • You can add a routines shortcut to your home screen:
    1. Open a routine.
    2. In the top right, tap Add to home screen .
    3. Press and hold the icon.
Create a personal routine

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

In Assistant settings, you can use and edit default routines or create your own.

  1. On your Pixel phone, open the Settings app Settings app.
  2. Under "Popular settings", tap Routines.
  3. At the top, tap New and then Personal.
  4. Add at least one starter and one action.
  5. If your routine is set to start automatically and it includes audio actions, select the audio device:
    1. At the bottom, tap No device for audio.
    2. Select the device.
    3. Tap Save.
  6. At the bottom, tap Save.
Tip: You can also create personal Routines in the Google Home app.

 

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.
Create a household routine
  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Home app Google Home.
  2. On the home screen Home, tap Routines and then New and then Household.
  3. Add at least one starter and one action.
  4. If your routine is set to start automatically and it includes audio actions, select the audio device:
    1. At the bottom, tap No device for audio.
    2. Select the device.
    3. Tap Save.
  5. At the bottom, tap Save.

Tip: If you don't find "Routines" on your home screen, find out 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.
  • 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 from other household routines. Learn how to set up Home and Away routines. 

Manage routines

Edit a routine

 

In the Google Assistant app

 

  1. On your Pixel phone, open the Settings app Settings app.
  2. Under "Popular settings", tap Routines.
  3. Select the routine that you want to edit.
  4. Edit your routine:
    • To edit a starter or an action: Tap it.
    • To add a voice command starter: Tap Add starter and then When I say to my Assistant.
    • To add a non-voice command starter: Tap Add starter and then a non-voice starter.
    • To add an action: Tap Add action.
  5. At the bottom right, tap Save.

 

In the Google Home app

 

  1. On your phone or tablet, open the Google Home app Google Home.
  2. On the home screen, tap Routines .
  3. Select the routine that you want to edit.
  4. Edit your routine:
    • To edit a starter or an action: Tap it.
    • To add a voice command starter: Tap Add starter and then When I say to my Assistant.
    • To add a non-voice command starter: Tap Add starter and then a non-voice starter.
    • To add an action: Tap Add action.
  5. At the bottom right, tap Save.

Tip: If you don't find "Routines" on your home screen, find out why routines might not show. 

Pause a routine

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

 

  1. On your Pixel phone, open the Settings app Settings app.
  2. Under "Popular settings", tap Routines.
  3. Select the routine that you want to pause.
  4. At the top, turn off Activate routine.
  5. At the bottom right, tap Save.

 

In the Google Home app

 

  1. On your Android phone, open the Google Home app Google Home.
  2. On the home screen, tap Routines .
  3. Select the routine that you want to pause.
  4. At the top, turn off Activate routine.
  5. At the bottom right, tap Save.

Tip: If you don't find "Routines" on your home screen, find out why routines might not show. 

Create a shortcut for a routine

You can add a shortcut on your home screen that you can tap to run your routine.

 

In the Google Assistant app

 

  1. On your Pixel phone, open the Settings app Settings app.
  2. Under "Popular settings", tap Routines
  3. Select the routine for which you want to create a shortcut.
  4. At the top right, tap Create a home screen shortcut .
  5. Follow the on-screen steps.

 

In the Google Home app

 

  1. On your Android phone, open the Google Home app Google Home.
  2. On the home screen, tap Routines .
  3. Select the routine for which you want to create a shortcut.
  4. At the top right, tap Create a home screen shortcut .
  5. Follow the on-screen steps.
Delete a routine

Important: To stop a routine temporarily learn how to pause the routine.

 

In the Google Assistant app

 

  1. On your Pixel phone, open the Settings app Settings app.
  2. Under "Popular settings", tap Routines.
  3. Select the routine that you want to delete.
  4. At the top, tap Delete and then Delete routine.

 

In the Google Home app

 

  1. On your Android phone, open the Google Home app Google Home.
  2. On the home screen, tap Routines .
  3. Select the routine that you want to delete.
  4. At the top, tap Delete and then Delete routine.

Tip: If you don't find "Routines" on your Home screen, learn why routines might not show. 

Learn about the types of routines

Personal 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

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.

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.

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 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 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: Start a routine when you tap Play Play arrow 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.
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. 

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 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:
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.

Why a starter and action combination might be unavailable

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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