It’s a fact that voice assistants make our lives easier and more comfortable at home (and also on the steering wheel with Android Auto and voice commands): answer questions, set timers, play music, turn on or off devices such as lighting or smartphones. thermostat… but can also be used for: discouraging our friends from doing other people’s business while we are away from homefor example, while on holiday.

Yes, Google Assistant on a Google Nest-type smart device with Google Home can be a great preventive security measure. Like? Pretending there is someone at home with a particular activity: turning light bulbs on and off, playing music or turning on the television, etc. This way I could confuse curious people who were waiting for our absence by not seeing any light or movement in our windows.

Pretend there’s someone at home using Google Home: routines

In addition to having connectivity and compatible connected devices to make this simulation more complete (the minimum would be to ask our speaker to tell the news, play music, or talk in general), the key Google Home app routines.

Routines are automations that chain actions while calling or programming something.For example, when we say ‘Good morning’ to Google, it gives us the news of the day and opens the grill plug where we left the bread, allowing it to fry. In the scenario of going on holiday, the routine will aim to simulate existence and will be open to our imagination and available devices.

To configure a routine, go to the Google Home app and click ‘Automatic‘. There you will see a few recommended routines that may be useful to you or just allow you to discover their potential, but what interests us is the button ‘To add‘. On the next screen we choose whether we want the routine to be modified by household members or only by you, and then we start the routine. (Note: In previous versions of the app and before the arrival of Gemini, the path was slightly different, but the main Routine screen has changed little)

Now we start customize routine. First of all, give it a name, preferably something descriptive of its function; in our case we chose ‘Holiday’. In the ‘Activator’ section we choose the days and times we want it to be active, and in the last section (‘Actions’) we detail what actions we want Google Home to perform at certain times of the day.

For example, we can arrange music to play on days when we are out at a certain time. However, I recommend the episode ‘Try adding your own commands’ Because of the versatility it offers as it allows you to type a command for the Google voice assistant that we want it to run at that particular moment.

And that’s it, Imagination for power: in the morning you listen to the news, in the afternoon you listen to the radio, around 9 pm you turn on the lights and be careful, because we can also choose with which devices the actions will be performed, for example the Google Nest Mini in the kitchen on the radio and the bulbs to turn on are the same as in the living room.

Cover | Microsoft Copilot Designer and Google

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