06-01-2024 02:55 PM
Google Home App is very limited to create automations, so I decided to dig into the advanced home automations with the script editor. They don't seem very robust either 😂 I am surprised Google is so far behind, simple apps like SmartLife seem to have more intuitive ways to automate their devices.
Anyway, we have automated our home but when we have guests it's very hard for them to control lights or other devices in the room because they need to know the "Room Name" in order to give correct voice commands.
I thought that a great solution - which is not out of the box - was to say for example "Turn on the lights in this room" and Google would see which device is getting the command, then see the room it's located and just turn on the lights in that room. Well, simple logic doesn't seem to run in whoever is running the Google automation world.
I went through all the device commands, states, etc and I could not find a way to determine the room location of the device receiving the voice command.
Has anyone been able to do this type of automation? It will be so simple if "this room" would just limit the actions to the devices in the room, or any similar command.
Otherwise guests (and sometimes even ourselves) have to remember what is the exact name of the specific room to give a command.
Answered! Go to the Recommended Answer.
06-04-2024 10:39 PM
You're over-complicating this — Google Home already does what you want by default! If you don't mention any room name in the voice command, GH assumes you are talking about the lights in that room.
I.e. if you're in the Bedroom and say 'turn on the lights' all the lights in the bedroom turn on and the lights in other rooms are unaffected.
If you're in the Bedroom and say 'turn on all the lights' then and only then do all the lights in the entire house turn on.
The only time you ever need to specify the room name is if you aren't in that room already. For example, if you're in the Kitchen and want to turn on the lights in the bedroom, you need to say 'turn on the lights in the bedroom'
Of course, this depends on having a listening device in each room. If you only have a Nest Hub or Mini in the kitchen and you yell from the bedroom to 'turn off the lights' it will turn off the kitchen lights.
06-01-2024 10:22 PM
I disagree with your statement that SE isnt that robust as I have some extremely complex scripts that often leverage devices from different vendors. For example multiple aqara sensors triggering govee lights or using an aqara contact sensor to turn on an xbox then govee lights via a Google Script .
As for your scenario I can think of multiple ways to trigger it via sensors so your guests wouldnt have to do anything. Lemme work out the way you want next
06-04-2024 04:24 AM
Thank you for replying. Yes, I am open to suggestions. I'm not sure if making sensors trigger device actions I would call it complex scripts, it seems that this would be the bare minimum that Google Home should have to call this a "Smart" home.
The main issue we are having is that most of the rooms have multiple lights:
So in order to operate them we need to memorize each exact room's name and the device name. Guests have a really hard time knowing what we named each room. What are your suggestions? Specially because sensors won't work as we might want only 1 out of the 3 lights to be on, so I am not sure how sensors would know that.
Are there any other apps that can handle scripts with a more robust programming platform/programming language?
06-04-2024 10:39 PM
You're over-complicating this — Google Home already does what you want by default! If you don't mention any room name in the voice command, GH assumes you are talking about the lights in that room.
I.e. if you're in the Bedroom and say 'turn on the lights' all the lights in the bedroom turn on and the lights in other rooms are unaffected.
If you're in the Bedroom and say 'turn on all the lights' then and only then do all the lights in the entire house turn on.
The only time you ever need to specify the room name is if you aren't in that room already. For example, if you're in the Kitchen and want to turn on the lights in the bedroom, you need to say 'turn on the lights in the bedroom'
Of course, this depends on having a listening device in each room. If you only have a Nest Hub or Mini in the kitchen and you yell from the bedroom to 'turn off the lights' it will turn off the kitchen lights.
06-07-2024 04:49 AM
Thank you for your reply. And yes in fact this works! We also have a mini in each room and I tested it. The issue that we were running into was the naming of the devices as each room has multiple lights. Usually:
But now with your solution we just named lights Main Light 1, Main Light 2, etc and when we say just say "Turn on Main Light" it turns the main light in that room only. Because Google does not allow same name device I thought I had to say the complete name of the light to turn it on like "Turn on Main Light Master Bedroom". Thank you for your help!