Google launches scripting tool for smarthome automation

Google will come in 2023 as part of its Home ecosystem with a script editor that can be used to write smart home automations. The company thus focuses on power users who want more functionality than can be found in the Google Home app.

The company is targeting users who find the Routine functionality from the Google Home app too restrictive with the tool. The editor makes it possible to write the routines by hand, after which they become visible in the Google Home app and can be executed there.

Google does not provide many technical details, but a number of things can be concluded from the published screenshot. For example, the scripts seem to consist of a trigger and an action, and yaml is used as the scripting language. This makes the scripts very similar to the yaml automations of the smart home software Home Assistant, although that platform also offers support for conditions and other more advanced options. It is not yet known whether Google will also support this, but this is obvious because only triggers and actions can already be set via the Home app. Google itself says that the script editor ‘will get more than a hundred new features and possibilities’.

When asked where the scripts will run, Google answers that it is the intention to run these types of automations locally in the future. At the moment, Google Home Routines still run in the cloud. Whether that means that the company will use a Nest Hub or Nest router for this, for example, is not yet clear. Google has already announced that these devices can be used as a border router for the Thread protocol that the upcoming smart home standard Matter uses, so it wouldn’t be surprising if those devices also started running scripts from such a central role.

Google Home Script Editor, click to enlarge