Google Home automation just got simpler

Google has been rolling out updates to the Google Home app twice a month for some time now. A major update earlier this month added support for hardware smart buttons, allowing them to be used as triggers. Now, with a mid-February update, Google Home is getting predefined voice actions to speed up creating new routines.

When you create a new automation in the Google Home Automation editor, predefined voice actions will appear in the “Add actions” section on compatible devices.

These actions include:

• Announce the current time

• Announce today’s weather

• Ask what time to set the alarm

• Play the bells

• Play music

• Play news

• Play a podcast

• Play the radio

• Play sleep sounds

• Tell a joke

Please note that this action is currently limited to the full Automation editor in the Google Home app. They won’t appear in Ask Home or the AI-assisted “Help me create” sections.

Google notes that you can still use the “Ask Google” action to create custom commands for compatible devices. They also promised to continue expanding “support for home automation capabilities.”

Another welcome quality-of-life improvement is the ability to delete preloaded routines like “Good morning” and “Bedtime.” If you have a lot of routines, this change will free up space and make it easier for you to see the routines you actually use.

Download longer video clips in Google Home for web

Google Home for web is also getting improvements. You can now download video clips up to five minutes long, which include several overlapping short event clips. Previously, longer recordings could be split into several shorter clips.

To further improve the Home automation experience, Google now allows you to send feedback about automation directly from the Google Home app. Long press on an automation to open the feedback menu.

From there, you can select the problem, such as Automation running wrong, Not running, Running too slow, or Running too often. There’s also an “More” option, so you can share additional details to help Google diagnose and fix the problem.

All of the above changes were rolled out as part of the latest Google Home app update or implemented on the web.