How To Add Devices To Google Assistant (4 Easy Steps)
Google Assistant should not be anything new to an android user. Most android people inherently know how to use the readily available AI (Google Assistant) help on their mobile phone. If you’ve never heard about google assistant it is a mobile assistant that can potentially help you get a lot of things done simply by taking voice commands from you. It is activated by voice and you can ask questions from it and get the answers you need. You can also ask the assistant to do certain things for you like controlling your smart home devices. That’s where this little guide comes in handy.
For google assistant to have control over these smart devices and allowing you to control them automatically, you have to pair both google assistant and your smart home devices on your phone. The moment this is done, you start to control these devices simply by directing voice commands to google assistant. Cool right? Below is a step by step tutorial of how to add smart home devices to google assistant and control them more easily.
Step 1: Get to home control settings
This is the first step, and like other steps, is very simple. Long press the home button on your android device. You can also access the google assistant app from your iOS. On the top right corner of your screen interface, there will be a blue menu button there. Click on the menu button.
The next thing for you to do is to tap on the three-dot, after which you then choose “Settings”. From the list of dropdowns, you then select “Home control”. Once you are done with this, you have completed the first step. Then, you move to the next step.
Step 2: Add your smartphone devices to google assistant
After clicking on the home control, it brings out two tabs side by side (devices and room). The default tab is the ‘devices’ tab, leave it at that. Look towards the bottom right corner, click on the blue plus (+) button there. This command will bring out a list of the different smart home devices that can work well with google assistant. What you need to do is to look for your own brand and choose it. After doing this, what comes next may vary depending on the type of android device that you use.
Generally speaking though, the next thing to do is to grant your permission to google assistant for it to access the smart device(s) that you have added. For you to do this though, you might be required to sign in to your Google account if you are not already signed in. However, if you are signed in or after signing in, you are required to press “allow”, “yes” or “okay”, whichever one your device asks, in order to grant google assistant the required permission. Just ensure that you follow whatever prompt you get from your device.
Step 3: Assign the various devices to different rooms
Do not forget that you have two tabs (devices and room) after clicking on the home control. After selecting your devices and granting google assistant permission to the devices, the next step is to add the different devices to different rooms. This basically is to separate the different devices and make it easy to differentiate them when you are giving your command for anyone of them. On the list of your selected devices, tap one of the devices and add them to a room.
There are options for the most common rooms to choose from. But if none of them fit your spec and you wish to add your own room, click on “Custom Room” at the end of the list and add a room manually. After you add all the devices to different rooms, click on “DONE” at the top right corner of your screen. The next thing that appears on your screen is “You’re all set!” This confirms the success of this step.
Step 4: Confirm your set up
If you have carried out the previous steps, you have successfully added your smart home devices to google assistant and it is now time to control your devices with your voice. Google assistant would be immediately ready to receive your command when you click on the microphone button or just by saying “OK Google”. After this, you can give it whatever command you desire it to carry out and it would do it. Just to test your set up, you could say “OK Google turn off living room”.
This command will automatically turn off all the lights in your living room. This example is not a particular order for talking to your assistant. Remember it is your google assistant, so you can talk to it in any way you see it fit. It is artificial intelligence and would be able to decode what command you are issuing. Once you have tested your set up with a few commands and it has worked, then that’s it!
Conclusion
Admittedly, when I first started using Google Assistant as a way to control smart home devices I had several issues getting things to work right. But now I’ve realized that adding smart home devices to google assistant is not so much a big deal. It might be stressful setting it up, but on the other hand, it eases your stress after the fact. You can turn on the light switch in the kitchen without walking the distance. How’s that for assistance? That’s what technology and knowing how to use it does. It makes life easier and less stressful.
