Manage third-party app control of smart home devices

Google Home allows you to connect your home to third-party apps so you have more ways to control and automate your smart home devices. You can view, modify, or remove third-party app access at any time for any of the homes where you’re a manager.

You can grant third-party apps access to device types, and for sensitive devices you can grant or deny access to individual devices. Granting access to device types also grants access to all future devices in that type added to the home. Third-party apps can also create, schedule, and delete automations for the devices you grant them access to. If you or someone in your home later removes a third-party app’s access to devices or the home, automations created by that third-party app will no longer run as expected.

Set up third-party app permissions

If you want to control a device linked to your Google Account with a third-party app, you’ll need to provide permission.

To learn more about what data is captured for each device type, visit the Safety Center.

To grant permission to a third-party app:

1. Open the third-party app and when prompted, log in to your Google Account.
2. Based on how the third-party app initiates the request for permission, you may find a pop-up banner. Tap the banner choose the Google Account you wish to link with the third-party app.
3. A consent screen requesting access to the home and devices will appear:
   • If you have multiple homes, you’ll need to choose which home you wish to manage.
   • To let the third-party app access the devices in the types they’ve registered for in your home, tap Allow. In this case, the app will also auto-link with future devices in the requested types connected to your home.
   • To view and manage access to specific device types, tap Gear . For each type, tap the switch to turn linking on or off return to the consent screen tap Allow. In this case, the app will auto-link only with future devices in the types with linking turned on.
   • Sensitive devices only:
     • Tap on a sensitive device type’s switch to manage all devices within that type return to the consent screen tap Allow. In this case, if you switch the locks type off, future locks will not be linked.
     • To limit access to specific devices, tap on Gear tap a sensitive device type to display a list of devices turn the switch on or off for each specific device return to the consent screen tap Allow. In this case, if linking is turned off for at least one device in a type, the app won’t auto-link future devices for that type.
     • To turn auto-link back on, you need to share all devices in that type.

To learn more about sensitive device types, go to Data security and privacy on linked third-party apps.

Manage third-party app permissions

After you’ve allowed access to third-party apps, you can manage those permissions later in the Google Home app or My Account. You can also manage permissions set up by other home managers in the Google Home app .

• Google Home app :
  • View all third-party apps that are linked to your home.
  • Manage devices linked to third-party apps.
  • View all automations created by third-party apps. To check, tap Automations at the bottom of the screen.
  • View or remove a household member’s access to a third-party app.
  • View or remove a specific controller access to a third-party app, say in the case you had the app installed on a phone you no longer have in your possession.

The Google Home app provides the most control of your home experience.

• My Account:
  • View and manage third-party apps you’ve linked with your Google Account.

Go to Data security and privacy on linked third-party apps to learn more about what data is collected when you grant permission to third-party apps.

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Data security and privacy on linked third-party apps