With the new (or new to you) Google Assistant, you can control smart home devices like the Nest thermostat, Hue lights, and more with just your voice—right from your phone. Here’s how to set them up.
To control a device from Google Assistant, you’ll first need to add it to your Google account. Currently, Google only supports smarthome devices from five companies natively: Honeywell, Nest, Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, and Belkin WeMo. You’ll also need your account information for your product. So, if you decided to skip setting up a Nest account when you installed your thermostat, you’ll need to go back and make one now.
Once you have your account info, pull out your phone and hold down the Home button to launch Google Assistant. Tap the menu button and choose Settings.
Next, tap “Home control” near the top.
On the next page, tap the round icon with a plus sign in it at the bottom of the screen.
Next, choose which device account you want to link. We’ll demonstrate with Nest, but the steps may be slightly different depending on which account you link.
You’ll then be directed to log into your smart device’s account. If you’ve already logged in using Chrome on your phone, Google may remember this and simply ask you to give Google Assistant permission to connect to your gadget’s account.
Once you’ve connected your smart home account, you’ll see a list of devices available. Here, you can add them to “rooms” that allow Google to turn them on or off all at once. It also helps you organize your devices later on. If you’d like, click the Edit button to assign a room. If you don’t want to assign your devices to a room, tap Done to skip this step.
Pick a name from the list of rooms available or scroll to the bottom to choose “Custom Room” and add your own.
Once you’ve assigned rooms for each device, tap Done. You’re all set! Now you can use voice commands to control your lights, thermostat, smart switches, and more from any Google Assistant-enabled device you’re signed into.
For now, you can only add products from the five companies listed, but Google has promised it will add support for more devices over time.
