Google is rolling out a major update to the Google Home app that significantly expands what users can do with smart home automations, adding new triggers, conditions, and actions across Android and iOS.
The update is now live through Google Home version 4.6.55.1 and focuses on giving automations more context, more control, and broader device support, including long-requested improvements for robot vacuums and appliances.
More triggers and conditions for smarter automations
Google Home automations are gaining a wider range of starter and condition options, allowing routines to react to what devices are actually doing, rather than relying on simple time or presence triggers.
Users can now build automations based on media playback states, such as whether a speaker or TV is playing, paused, or buffering, enabling routines that respond dynamically to entertainment activity.
Brightness levels can also act as triggers, allowing automations to start when lights exceed a specific percentage, which opens up more precise lighting-based routines throughout the home.
Google has also added condition checks for supported smart appliances, including whether a washer or dryer is running, paused, stopped, or reporting an error, adding more situational awareness to automations.
These changes allow the Home app to move closer to true conditional automation, where routines react to real-time device states instead of fixed schedules.
Expanded actions include robot vacuums and security systems
The most noticeable upgrade comes from the expanded list of actions that automations can now perform, giving users more direct control over individual devices.
Automations can now explicitly turn specific devices on or off, arm security systems, open or close smart blinds, and stop lighting effects on compatible smart bulbs.
Robot vacuum control is one of the headline additions, with automations now able to start, pause, resume, or send a vacuum back to its dock directly from a routine.
Smart appliances also gain deeper control, with automations capable of starting, stopping, or pausing supported washers, dryers, and coffee machines, though some categories remain unsupported for now.
Google notes that smart ovens, robot mops, and certain vacuum features are still excluded, and support varies depending on the manufacturer and device model.
Notably absent from this update is support for smart buttons, including those recently released by IKEA, which remain unsupported within Google Home automations.
Google says it plans to continue expanding automation capabilities over time, encouraging users to regularly check release notes as the Home platform evolves.
With these changes, Google is clearly positioning Google Home as a more powerful automation hub, narrowing the gap between simple routines and advanced smart home logic.
