Google has been rolling out updates to the Google Home app twice a month for some time now. The major update at the start of this month added support for hardware smart buttons, enabling them to be used as triggers. Now, with the mid-February update, Google Home is getting pre-defined voice actions to speed up creating new routines.
When you create a new automation in the Google Home Automation editor, the pre-defined voice actions will appear in the “Add action” section on compatible devices.
These actions include:
- Announce current time
- Announce today’s weather
- Ask what time to set an alarm
- Play chime
- Play music
- Play news
- Play podcast
- Play radio
- Play sleep sounds
- Tell a joke
Do note that these actions are currently limited to the full Automation editor in the Google Home app. They will not appear in Ask Home or the “Help me create” AI-assisted section.
Google notes that you can still use the “Ask Google” action to create custom commands for compatible devices. It also promises to continue expanding “support for home automation capabilities.”
Another welcome quality-of-life improvement is the ability to delete preloaded routines like “Good morning” and “Bedtime.” If you have a lot of routines, this change will free up space and make it easier to see the ones you actually use.
Download longer video clips in Google Home for web
Google Home for the web is also getting an upgrade. You can now download video clips up to five minutes long, spanning multiple overlapping short event clips. Previously, longer recordings could get split into multiple shorter clips.
To further improve the Home automation experience, Google will now let you send feedback about automations directly from the Google Home app. Long-press on an automation to bring up the feedback menu.
From there, you can select the issue, such as Automation ran incorrectly, Didn’t run, Ran too slowly, or Ran too many times. There’s also an “Other” option, so you can share additional details to help Google diagnose and fix the problem.
All the above changes are rolling out as part of the latest Google Home app update or are live on the web.
