Tips For Using Google Home

Tips for using Google Home’s handy shortcut and automation feature.

- Jared Newman

Unless you’ve dug deep into the settings menu for the Google Home (go.pcworld. com/ghae), you might not know about the smart speaker’s most powerful feature.

It’s called Routines, and it allows you to execute multiple actions with a single voice command. For example, you can have Google Assistant announce the weather, a personalized traffic report, and news updates while you get ready for work, or have it dim your smart light bulbs and play some relaxing music a few minutes before bedtime. These routines even work with the Google Assistant app on iOS and Android— no smart speaker required.

You can also schedule Routines to run at specific times without voice commands, effectively turning a Google Home speaker into a high-tech alarm clock that can wake you up with music, information, and smart home automations.

Here’s how to get started with the Google Home’s Routines, and how to make the most of them:

GOOGLE HOME ROUTINE BASICS

To start building Routines, open the Google Home app for Android (go.pcworld.com/ ghan) or iOS (go.pcworld.com/ghis), press the menu button in the top-leftcorner, and then select More Settings. Now scroll down to the Services section, and select Routines.

Within this menu, you’ll see several ready-made Routines for things like leaving the house, commuting home, and going to bed. Tap on any of these Routines to modify them, or hit the + button to build a Routine from scratch.