Hey Google Nest Community,
We're excited to announce a significant upgrade to our automation editor, bringing you more power and flexibility to customize your household automations. We know many of you have been asking for more robust customization options, and we're thrilled to show you what we’ve been working on!
This improved household automation editor now allows for even smarter automations with the highly anticipated addition of more conditions, which allow you to create automations that only start when certain criteria are met. This means smarter, more context-aware automations for your home. You can now create automations that react to the state of your devices and home like never before. Imagine your lights automatically adjusting based on the time of day and whether someone is home. The possibilities are truly endless!
We’ve also added one-time automations. Before, when you set an automation it was recurring, for example: happened every Thursday. Now you can have an automation that controls many devices and actions in your home but only triggering once, not recurring - so: just this Thursday vs. every Thursday. You also have the option to set it to auto-delete after the automation finishes.
We've packed this update with support for many starters, conditions, actions, allowing you to create intricate and intelligent automations right out of the gate. Some capabilities are not yet available in the new editor, but more will be added regularly. Learn more about supported features and behaviors in this article!
How to access the new automation editor
Ready to dive in? Here’s how you can access the new and improved automation editor:
1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Create + > New automation.
3. To name your Automation, tap Add name.
Optional: To include a description for your automation, tap Add description.
4. Add the starters, conditions, and actions you want.
5. Tap Save.
You'll be guided through the new experience, where you can start building your smarter home automations with conditions. Check out these new features:
- Start automations based on the presence (someone home, everyone away).
- Send a notification to specific people or your entire household.
- Set your automations to run on specific days and times or hourly, monthly, annually.
When creating automations, you will be able to name your automation and see a set of options to select from across starters, conditions and actions.
Once your selections have been made, you will see the editor populate and be able to review the automation before saving.
More is coming!
While we're incredibly excited about these advancements, we want to be transparent about a few temporary considerations. Some features aren't yet available in the new automation editor, including thermostat controls, camera on/off, light effects, and light colors. Additionally, some starters and actions from Personal Routines are not supported in our automation editor. You can still continue to build Personal Routines, or use our script editor or the previous version of the automation editor, which can be accessed by following the steps in this Help Center article.
We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible and appreciate your patience as we continue to expand the capabilities of our new household automation editor. Your feedback is invaluable, so please don't hesitate to send feedback in the app as you explore these new features.
We hope you enjoy these powerful new tools for building a smarter, more personalized home! If you want to keep up to date on the latest changes, take a look at our release notes.
Thanks,
Kathryn, Product Manager, Google Home & Nest
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Frequently asked questions:
Q: Is the new editor available on both iOS and Android?
A: Yes! We are rolling out the new automation editor in phases, so check back over the next few weeks if you don’t have access to it yet.
Q: Is there a list of supported regions/languages?
A: You can find the full list of supported regions here.
Q: Can I revert back to the previous editor?
A: Yes you can! You can revert to the previous household editor by following these steps here.
Q: Why can't I build Personal Routines anymore - only household ones?
A: Users can still build personal or household routines. The new editor in the Google Home app Automations tab defaults to the new automation editor to build Household Routines. To build Personal Routines, tap the dot menu (top right), then select “previous personal editor”
Q: Are there any limitations on what capabilities can be used, such as changing the color of a light or turning cameras on/off?
A: Some features (thermostat controls, camera on/off, light effects, light colors) are not available yet in this new editor. However, past supported traits can still be used in the script editor or the previous household editor. You can access the previous household editor by following these steps here, or the script editor.
Q: Are sensors supported as triggers in the new editor?
A: Some sensors, such as motion sensors are supported in the new editor. Different kinds of contact sensors, such as door and window sensors, are not yet supported but are planned. We’ll also introduce camera motion detection soon! You can stay up to date with the latest capabilities we support here or on the Nest Community blog.
Q: When I click on automations from the automation tab - some of my automations open in the new editor and some in the old one. Why is that?
A: We are slowly working on upgrading all automations to the new editor, bringing over the best and most popular features. For now, some automations can only be viewed and managed in the old editor. Rest assured, these will continue to function as normal while we add more capabilities to the new editor.
