Create powerful automations with our new script editor, now available in Public Preview

[GoogleNestTeam]

Hey Google Nest Community, 

TL;DR: Read about the new script editor for automations that is rolling out to users in Public Preview, and join our discussion in the Home Automation forum to share the scripts you've created, ask questions, and share feedback with the Google team.

We built a script editor to give you more control over your home automations. This tool provides a new way to quickly create and edit powerful home automations using YAML. You can easily create scripts for advanced automations with more device traits than are currently available in the app. 

The script editor will be available to all users in Public Preview on Google Home for web starting June 13th, followed by the Google Home app (for users who have opted in to Google Home app Public Preview) starting June 14th. 

Similar to the new Home app, the new Automation Tab on Google Home for web shows your Personal and Household Routines. You can manually start automations from here. To create a new automation script, click + Add new.

Follow our step-by-step guide to write your first script. Get started with our helpful documentation and ready-to-use example automation scripts. Autocomplete fills in device names and traits to guide you through writing scripts.

We’ve heard you want powerful capabilities to automate your home. Here are a few ways we’re excited to share our progress with the script editor:

• Build your most powerful automations with nearly 100 starters, conditions and actions for Google Home and 3rd party devices, including many Matter devices
• You rely on a wide range of devices in your smart home, and you want to be able to create advanced automations that control all of your devices
• We’ve expanded how an automation can be started, and what it can do
• You can now use nearly 100 starters, conditions and actions to create custom automations that meet your needs, much more than what is currently possible in the Google Home app
• The script editor works across Google Home and 3rd party smart home devices, with all the traits that our devices and 3rd party devices support, giving you more control over your home, flexibility in creating automations, and compatibility with a wide range of devices
• You can also start automations with the most popular sensor types, including many Matter-supported sensors. For flexible automations, use advanced logic like multiple starters, Boolean conditions, and custom Assistant queries to fine tune when an automation runs.

• Use our easy, flexible scripting language, tool and examples to help you get started quickly
  • Only basic coding skills are needed to edit and adopt automations quickly using example automation scripts
  • Manually fix any errors by clicking “validate” to view debugging error messages and warnings 
  • Concise and easy to understand starter-condition-action syntax maps to Routines 
  • Edit scripts on any surface — web, mobile or tablet
    

• Powered by Google intelligence
  • Build and customize automations based on home presence signals, using Home & Away as starters and conditions, going beyond what’s possible with existing Home & Away Routines. 

• Continue automating your home after Works with Nest goes away

• Starting September 29, 2023, Works with Nest connections will stop working. You can continue to automate your home by creating automations script editor in Google Home for web and in the Google Home app, available in Public Preview.

Here are a few examples of what you can do with the script editor:

• Use Home/Away as a starter and condition
• Change the lights when I come home or leave
• Vacuum while everyone is away
• Control camera based on household presence
• Use multiple automations in one script
• Scheduled lighting with multiple times
• Synchronize two switches
• Sequence multiple actions, and use special features like light effects
• Flash lights when smoke alarm is active
• Flash lights when carbon monoxide detected 
• Use custom Google Assistant commands
• Movie night scene
• Use sensors, including many Matter ones, to start automations
• Motion triggered lights with Matter occupancy sensor
• Turn on air purifier when indoor air quality is poor
• Control multiple devices 
• Schedule lights and blinds

Note: Automations are for convenience only, and shouldn’t be relied upon for safety-critical use cases.

Share your feedback and your automations

Please share your thoughts through the “send feedback” function in the tool! The script editor is in preview and the script language may change over time, so your feedback will help us improve features.  

We’re very excited for you to begin building custom automations that fit your unique home. We’d love for you to share what you’ve created. Head to the Home Automation forum and join the discussion. 

Coming soon

We’re excited to get you the script editor as an early preview. We're working to add more starters and actions, including camera events as starters. We’re also working on custom notifications that enable you to include notifications in an automation. Additionally, we’re improving debugging and language capabilities. Android and iOS Google Home app users will both be able to Manage their advanced scripted automations (edit, run, deactivate, delete). Creating new scripts on Google Home app for iOS is coming soon as well. 

Check out our Help Center for more instructions on how to write a scripted automation.  

Then try out the new script editor  and let us know what you think!

Thanks,

Prafulla Rawal, Senior Product Manager, Google Home

[BCohen1983]

This looks awesome, but I'd really like to be able to use the Assistant on WearOS to trigger routines!  I have a device that goes everywhere I do, never needs to be pulled out of a pocket, doesn't need to be plugged into every room in the house, and has the Google Assistant on it... and it can't run anything I create with this.  (It also can't trigger routines created with the original Google Home app.) 

[talormanda]

Why am I only seeing a blank screen when I try to go to https://home.google.com/u/0/automations

[kelanfromgoogle]

Hi @talormanda, 

We're currently working on rolling out script editor to everyone - if you're still encountering an issue after the end of the week please check back in with us.

Thank you,
Kelan

[talormanda]

@kelanfromgoogle sure thing

[EmptyNester]

This is all well and good but for me I put being able to view the cameras recorded events and 24/7 recording miles ahead of this in the list of things important to me along with creating a saved clip and sending a link to people to view it JUST LIKE ON Home.nest.com.   

... just my 2 cents.

[KyleBrezovec]

Very excited for this. Camera events for starters will be a big one. Having my hub max display the camera view as soon as it seems a person instead of only when the doorbell is rang will be a huge improvement. 

[bramvmb]

@kelanfromgoogle 

Any idea when camera events for starters will be available? 

I'm hoping on this for ages 🙂

kind regards,

Bram

[alexkillby]

Love this, but was really expecting to see something like Google Apps Script with a bunch of new APIs for home automation. Why build a whole other scripting language that isn't javascript which everyone already knows? This looks like a YAML file or something? What is the reason for that?

[Cathal_S]

@BCohen1983 

I am already seeing 'Household' automations available on the Google Pixel Watch.

[BCohen1983]

@Cathal_S I have the same thing on my Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, but that's not the same thing as triggering a routine via the assistant.  We need to be able to trigger routines with a voice command, which inexplicably has been a missing feature for the entire time that WearOS has existed. 

[alexkillby]

Just became available on my account. Yes, this was so exciting, until I realized it's not actually a scripting language, it's just as limited as the original custom routines were, but with an even worse UI. You can't interact with any other service like you can with GAS, you can't actually write any logic beyond simple filter conditions. YAML is a terrible concept for all uses, and very disappointed to see it implemented here despite the fact that Google already had a scripting system for ALL OF ITS OTHER PRODUCTS.

[alexkillby]

Sorry, this is so irritating. "Advanced" logic like booleans... but not loops, variables, or basic arithmetic?

[cmattic]

Will we have the ability to take advantage of the broadcast features in GH with the scripting? For example, make a chime on the Google Homes if a motion is detected from a sensor or camera?

[Cathal_S]

@cmattic 

Google announced thet they are working on many improvements to this automation system.....

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Create-powerful-automations-with-our-new-script-editor-n... 

Triggers from camera events are definitely in the pipeline. 

[Cathal_S]

@alexkillby 

I never expected Google to drop a fully featured, programmable cloud automation system for the amount of users they currently have.

With the conditions you expect I imagine there would be hundreds of thousands of young people trying to get the Google servers into all sorts of loops and skullduggery 🤣

I welcome this addition and look forward to careful expansions.

If you need the complex automations that aren't covered yet with this release then there's lots of other home automation systems that can be run locally that will meet and expand on what you currently wish from this 'preview, cloud option '.

[talormanda]

I'm curious why we can't edit automations made through the app, yet we can go to https://assistant.google.com/settings/routines and do it there? Seems a bit backwards to me.

[limitleem]

Is there any way to see the code of the "create-by-app" automation script so that it will be easier to modify it in a code editor? I tried deactivating it, but it still won't allow me to open it via a code editor.

[kelanfromgoogle]

Hey @BCohen1983,

Thank you for the feedback. We are working to add the ability to trigger automations using voice command on WearOS, but as @Cathal_S pointed out - you can already create scripted automations and trigger them by tapping on them on your watch.

[BCohen1983]

@kelanfromgoogle That's great news, thanks for the update!  Any ballpark estimate on when that functionality might be available?  And by ballpark, I'd even be happy with something as vague as "coming this year" or not... (though more specific would be better 😉 ).

It's nice to have the app-triggered automations on WearOS, but it defeats the purpose of having a hands-free voice activated assistant if I need to use both hands to manually find and trigger the automation.

[kelanfromgoogle]

@BCohen1983 Totally hear you on that. I hate to say it but unfortunately I'm unable to provide even a ballpark timeline - but we're working on it!

[Titof174]

it's already very good but it would be necessary to add the creation of virtual objects and Weather data in scene conditions

[bostwickenator]

Well this came completely out of left field! I'm going to be fiddling around with this this weekend. NICE!

[talormanda]

Not sure where to ask this, but did anyone else have their Home app update and no longer has the new Public Preview interface? It's back to the old one.

[Carrigan2]

NEED AUTOMATION FOR RING DOORBELL- LOW BATTERY TEXT MESSAGE ALERT AT (X)%

Has anyone created an automation that will alert you via text when your Ring Doorbell battery (not ring camera) is getting low? Email is there default, and you can’t edit the battery percentage or the way it is delivered). 
please share if you have! 

[tinabells50]

This stupid thing don’t work most of the time I’m so upset about it Thank you so.

[artur0]

Is there a way to debug or understand why an automation did not trigger?

[David_K]

@talormanda If you also join public preview for the mobile app, you can view, create, and edit automations using the mobile app too. Looks as though creation isn't possible from the app if you're using iOS just at the moment.

Public Preview for Google Home app - Google Nest Help

[lextron]

Why is it that your own top-selling Nest cam and doorbell devices' detection of cars and people are so hard for you to set up as working triggers? Other companies' vacuums, coffee makers, etc. are more integrated with your Home automation. It is so frustrating that your security products still cannot trigger routines like switching on lights, sounds, etc. to scare away prowlers. I was so hopeful when I saw the helper suggestion of my Nest Cams and Doorbells when I selected the motionDetectionEventInProgress state. After following the helper suggestions in building a script to turn on lights and sounds with plugs and switches, my hopes were dashed again when finally validating. Your own script helper suggestions of your own products as triggers created "errors" showing your motion-detecting camera devices do not support the use of motion detection states as triggers. You also fooled us once before when the cameras' various types of motion detections were added as optional triggers in the standard Home app automation set up, even though they did not actually work, and you eventually just removed them from the options instead of making them work. 

[jkolar]

Hi @lextron Thank you for the feedback. We are actively working on the integration of Nest camera and doorbell events as triggers as mentioned in the coming soon section of the announcement. Pls expect to see them available in a few weeks. 

[aaronwithers173]

• cant find files with photos

[MSFDC]

Some third-party cameras require a PIN to be turned on or off through Google Assistant, which makes it impossible to automate the action within the current routine feature.

Hope the Script Editor could make it possible in the future.

[domwhewell]

Is anyone else's Activity tab spammed with events now!

 

[mdshahjale]

Help