Google Home gets a lot of flak for not being a great smart home platform, but the company is seemingly always adding new features to change that. The latest update brings some welcomed new automation triggers, more specific automation actions, and more.
First up, Google is addressing an annoying lag from cameras. If you’ve ever tried to open a video clip from a notification moments after it arrived, you may have been hit with the “Video not available” error. The changelog says a fix will allow the Google Home app to “play back events recently captured by your cameras.” No more waiting a little longer for the video to be playable.
Beyond the camera fixes, Google is adding some great stuff for automation building. You can now trigger automations with humidity, robot vacuum docking, battery status, more options for switch or button presses, and states for certain devices. Here’s the full list with some examples from Google:
Starters/Conditions:
- Humidity reaches a specific level: e.g. “When the humidity is above 60%…”
- Robot vacuum docking: e.g. “If the vacuum is docked…”
- Battery status on a device: e.g. “If the battery is charging…” or “When the battery is low…”
-
Switch or button is pressed**: e.g. “When double tapping the switch…”, “When holding down the button on a dimmer switch…”, or “When the button is released…” ** Available as a starter only
- Single or multi-press
- Long press
- Long press release
-
Binary state for supported devices: e.g. “If there’s a leak…” or “If the window is open…”
- Closed or opened
- Contact or no contact
- Freeze or no freeze
- Leak or no leak
Lastly, Google Home is getting lighting actions that I’m surprised weren’t already available. Currently, the automation actions for a light include on/off, brightness level, and increase/decrease brightness. You may have noticed that color options were not included. That’s finally changing, so you’ll be able to automate a light’s RGB color and color temperature. Look for these features to be rolling out to your phone this week.
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