Google Assistant routines are one of the best features added to Google Home. They save you time by automatically completing tasks from a simple phrase or time of day. Of course, we already know each routine needs a starter — either a time of day or a phrase to initiate the sequence. Sometimes, especially with the voice-activated routines, you won’t want to speak a phrase or wait for the specified trigger to start the routine. Luckily, you can add routines to your Android home screen by using a widget.
If you’re one of those people who want to have complete control over your routines and when they run, or you simply don’t feel like saying the trigger phrase, you can now place the routine on your phone’s home screen as a widget. Before widgets, you’d have to go into the Google Home app and go about three screens deep to activate a routine — how tedious. Now, it’s as simple as opening your phone and tapping a widget.
To set this up, we have to follow a few steps, and it’s best to make sure your Google Home app is updated first, although everyone should now have access to routine widgets. The feature was added server-side, so there’s no exact app version you’ll need. Here’s how to add it to the home screen on an Android phone:
One last thing to note is for all you home screen aesthetic perfectionists: Google may truncate your routine widget names for those with longer titles, something to be on the lookout for.
There are a few tangible uses for adding Google routines as a widget. Perhaps there’s a particular routine that you have that runs at a specific time, but you’re known to do this action infrequently. Having a widget allows you to run the sequence at your leisure. How about a Movie Time routine that involves turning on TVs and lights for a family get-together? You may not always want to tell your Google Home or phone to activate this routine, making a quick tap a more discreet option. Lastly, of course, is any routine you don’t want to say aloud every time, efficiency at its best.
There we have it, a quick and easy way to add Google Home routines to your home screen. Of course, this feature is only for Android devices at the moment. Even with iOS devices getting widget access with their last few major updates, this feature remains with Google’s primary operating system.
What are your routines that have so much priority they need to be added to your home screen?
Few things ruin a quiet evening faster than a robot vacuum roaring through the living room. Most of us end up pausing the cleaning run, which defeats the whole purpose of owning one. Matic thinks it has the answer with its new Serene robot vacuum, and the big selling point is how little noise it makes.
The Matic Serene runs at 52 decibels even when cleaning at full power. To put that in perspective, Matic compares it to the hum of your refrigerator. It is available now for $1,695, which is $200 more than the original Matic’s current price.
Outdoor security cameras are not always practical if you live in an apartment or rental. Drilling into an exterior wall may be off-limits, while pointing a regular indoor camera through a window can create another problem once reflections start showing up after dark.
Baseus is trying to solve both issues with the new PrimeSentinel W1, a $69.99 security camera designed specifically to monitor the outdoors through glass. It mounts directly to a window without drilling and uses a 4K Starlight sensor with an F1.0 aperture for full-color monitoring during the day and at night.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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