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In June, Google launched a Script Editor for Google Home to allow users to create more specific custom routines for their smart home. You can manually write and edit code to build automation according to your needs. However, the feature has been of little use to people without the knowledge and experience of coding. The company is fixing that with an AI-powered “help me script” tool that can generate code for commands written in natural language.
Google Home now lets everyone create custom routines
Routines are an important element of your smart home experience. Abilities such as having your lights turn off automatically after you go to sleep, having them turned on as soon as you step out of bed in the morning, or your start speaker announcing a package delivery as soon as your security camera detects it is what makes it all special. Google Home offers tons of such routines that you can customize with conditions according to your needs.
However, there are still various situations that you want to automate but Google Home doesn’t support a routine for them. This is where the Script Editor comes into play. It allows users with coding experience to write code for custom routines. For example, if you want the porch light to turn on when the camera sees someone after dark and simultaneously have your speaker make an announcement, you can write code for it.
The problem here is that not everyone can write complex code for such custom routines. With “help me write,” that’s no longer a problem. You can simply describe your condition in natural language and the tool will use generative AI to write the code. You can then copy, paste, and activate the code in the Google Home Script Editor to create a custom routine. If you want to modify the routine, you can revisit the Script Editor to make the changes.
For the above example, you can write the following command: “If my outdoor camera sees someone after dark, turn on the porch light and make an announcement.” The AI-powered tool will generate the code to make it a Google Home routine. Likewise, you can describe your condition as, “When the smoke alarm goes off, flash all the lights in the house and announce an emergency over the speakers,” and the tool will come up with the code.
The new tool will be available later this year
Google Home’s “help me script” AI tool will be available in a Public Preview later this year. You can access it from the Script Editor on Google Home for the web. The company doesn’t tell when the new feature might be available generally to everyone. “Because ‘help me script’ is powered by a large language model, it’s constantly learning and improving, generating more accurate and personalized scripts every day,” Google said in a blog post.