Google Assistant already works with Hue and other smart lights, but functionality has been limited to turning them on and off, using them with alarms and a few other features. Now, you can schedule lights and other electric devices to turn on and off at specific and even general times, as Android Police and Reddit users have noted.
The feature works via Google’s “Scheduled Actions” feature. That allows you to say “Hey Google, turn on the lights at 7 AM,” for example. You can set times for the current day or any other day over the next week by saying “Hey Google, turn on my coffee maker at 8 AM tomorrow,” or “run my sprinkler in a week at 5 PM,” for example. Android Police found that you can even set it turn lights on or off at sunrise or sunset, without the need to confirm an exact time.
The feature is working, but still appears to need more refinement. For instance, if you say “tomorrow” without mentioning a specific time, it will just acknowledge the command but do nothing. Also, Google’s documentation states that you can cancel scheduled actions, but that function doesn’t appear to work yet, according to Reddit and Android Police users. Based on the Google Assistant smart home documentation, however, all of those features should be working soon.
Author: Steve Dent, @stevetdent
November 23, 2020
Source: Engadget
