ICYMI: Google Home Household routines allow anyone to trigger
Just in case you managed to miss it like I did, back a couple of months ago Google added Household routines to the Home app. This allows anyone in your household to trigger a routine rather than just the person who created the thing.
For me this has been something I’ve been waiting for since I first got Google Home. The ability for my kiddos to trigger the bedtime routine that each of them has (change lights, set volume, play bedtime music, start reactor, etc). It’s also been something my youngest keeps asking for as she wants to be the one to start her bedtime music and switch the smart lights to dim/dark pink.
The update rolled out in October of 2022 it appears, and I totally missed it. This appears to have been released around the time Google Assistant was demanding we log in through the Home App out of the blue. Maybe related. Who knows.
There still appears to be no Home ability to choose the speaker that’s going to play media, so I still have to set it to a text command “play bedtime fun playlist on Lovie” but that’s accomplished pretty easily.
Yeah, so that request from my youngest is only three years old at this point… the sticking point has been since I had to start it that we then had to pause it when mom came in to sing her bedtime song… then I’d sometimes have to re-start as sometimes “pause” and “stop” sound alike to Google… and sometimes the music just stops for no reason whatsoever and this kiddo needs everything perfect to get to sleep… which means coming out, getting me to go into her room and start it up again.
I haven’t had a chance to test this with not-me. My hope is that Google’s AI is smart enough to understand my playlist, which is sharable, is the one that needs to play. The youngest has occasionally been able to get it to play, but I’m not sure if that’s by design or Google just thought it was me talking. The issues have been either of the kids triggering it, and playlist access… the former seems to have been fixed, let’s hope the latter doesn’t return a “you don’t have a bedtime fun playlist” when it comes down to it.
Anyway, I managed to miss there were household routines for the past three months.
