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Google Assistant routines go live today with lots of limitations
June 09, 2025
Googlehas been hyping itsroutines featureforGoogle Assistantfor months. Google promised thatroutineswould enable Assistant users to do multiple things at once that coincide with different aspects of a given day, like waking up, going to work, coming home, going to bed, etc.
Routines are now live in theGoogle Homeapp and will work with yoursmart home hardwarewith Google Assistant support. However, there are a lot of limitations and restrictions in this initial rollout, so you might be in for some disappointment.
There are six available routines, four of which work with either your smartphone orGoogle Home hardware, and two of which only work on your smartphone. The routines are:
Within each of the six routines, you can program certain things to happen. For example, your Good Morning routine could turn on the lights in your house, adjustthe thermostat, and start somemusic, news, or a podcast playing. Google Assistant can also tell youthe weatherand what your calendar looks like for the day.
However, not all Google Assistant-enabled products are available. For example, you can’t program your Assistant-enabled washing machine to start up when you leave for work, nor can you tell your smart remote to turn on the TV when you get home. These limitations might be lifted in future updates to routines, but Google does not indicate as to if or when that might happen.
Here is the full list of options you have within each routine:
You’ll probably notice that there are some strange choices here, as well. For example, it appears you’re able to send a text to someone automatically when you are commuting home (“Honey, I’m leaving work now”) but you can’t do it when you’re commuting to work (“Hey guys, meet you at the coffee shop for some much-needed caffeine”). Why is that?
Also, will this messaging capability only useSMS protocols, or can you use something else, likeWhatsApp, which has Assistant capabilities?
In almost all the routine options, the term “and more” is used. What does this mean? Does this mean you can control other things likesmart surveillance systemsor smart locks? It’s all very vague right now.
The best way to figure out how routines will work for you is to try it out yourself. Just open up the Google Home app on your smartphone and navigate to More Settings and you should see a Routines option there. If you don’t, your Google Home app hasn’t received the update yet.
Let us know what kinds of experiences you have with routines in the comments!
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