How to pause music in a Home AUTOMATION

[lazbo]

I can say "HG, pause music" and she will say "OK, pausing music on <speaker group>", and whatever music is playing will pause. I can say "HG, resume music" and we're back in business.

If I put "Pause music" as a "Try adding your own..." action in a routine, when she gets to it, she says "Nothing is playing now."

There ought to be media player controls under "Choose what this Routine will do" Play and Control Media option (Play, Pause, Next, etc.) but no.

Ideas?

[shogo · Accepted solution]

I think ultimately the problem here is that Google Home doesn't seem to recognize Speakers Groups in automations. However I just tested this and it seems you can workaround this by pausing media on a single device that belongs to your intended group and then this will automatically pause the entire speaker group. A bit awkward but it seems to work.

I have this setup: Speaker Group with Speaker1, Speaker2

Playing audio on Speaker Group.

Tested with this automation created by using Script Editor (probably the same can be done with regular UI) - media was properly paused and unpaused on the entire Speaker Group

actions:
  - type: device.command.MediaPause # Pause media playback.
    devices:  Speaker2 - Kitchen
  - type: time.delay
    for: 5 sec
  - type: device.command.MediaResume # Resume media playback.
    devices: Speaker2 - Kitchen

[lazbo]

Thanks, shogo. Adding "on stereo" (my speaker "group") worked for me.