You will now see new assistant routines added to Google Assistant. Once you open the Routines menu via the Google Assistant or Home app, under ‘Household Routines’ you will see a new “Starter” for both ‘Home’ and ‘Away’ routines. Here, along with “When I say to my Assistant”, “When everyone’s away” or “When someone comes home”, there is now a “When the user arrives/leaves.” Assistant Routine. However, it does not appear for any other types of Assistant Routines. Google Home app is pretty nifty as it lets you control all of your connected smart devices such as light bulbs, cameras, and thermostats. The new changes to Routines will help you trigger those gadgets as soon as you leave or arrive at your house. Last year, the Google Routines got presence sensing. It made use of location tracking and AI to sense when a house is empty. In turn, it would automatically shut off the lights, turn the temperature down, and do things of that sort.
Google Home and Away Routines feature is live in the Google Home app and in Assistant settings
The newly available new arrive/leave location trigger is similar to what presence sense does. However, the results you will get is much improved. Do note that it will still make use of the location data, but instead of making use of your phone to know if you have left the house or not, it gives you the option to enter specific locations to trigger the commands. The dedicated page now has the option of manually entering a destination for ‘Home’ and ‘Away’. You will then be taken to the “Your places” menu. Here ‘Home’ and ‘Work’ are listed by default and making use of the ‘Add a new place’ button, you can add your location. Overall, it provides more granular control to the automation service provided by Google Assistant as compared to presence sensing. Besides, now you can set up and make sure that the lights turn on a few minutes after you arrive at your home, by setting a nearby location. Your phone will even notify you when the routine starts running. As noted by 9to5Google, the feature is rolling out widely and is already live in the Google Home app as well in the Assistant settings.
