Google Assistant will be more contextually aware when turning lights On/Off in Rooms

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One of the primary obstacles that prevents people from immersing themselves in smart home technology is the idea of a difficult setup. In today’s growing smart home space, easy, seamless connections are more important than ever. Being able to adjust lighting with your voice is super convenient. That’s why one of the top use cases for a smart speaker like Google Nest/Home speaker is controlling smart home devices. Now, Google Nest/Home devices are getting smarter about room context and turning on nearby lights.

To explain, after this change, users can simply tell Google Home to turn off the lights, without the need to dictate which room. With that command, Google Nest/Home speakers will recognize that you mean the lights in the room the Google Nest/Home speaker is located. So, for example, you’re in the bedroom and tell Google Nest/Home speaker to turn off the lights. Google Assistant will then turn off the lights in the bedroom, without asking which room you’re referring to.

This is all thanks to the initial setup the user does for Google Home. During that process, you indicate where the Google Nest/Home speaker is located, and the same thing goes for all the smart home accessories you have connected. Inside the Google Home app, everything should be labeled and assigned to rooms, making this implementation pretty straightforward from Google’s perspective.

Here are different smart lights/switches that work with Google Assistant:

Philips Hue: You can ask Assistant to adjust the lights with scenes that you’ve set up in the Hue application. For adjusting things such as colors on several lights or just having multiple rooms turn on at once.

IKEA TRÅDFRI: An affordable IKEA USA lighting option that compares to Philips Hue, works with Google Assistant and Google Home.

With that connection made, you’ll be able to say, “Hey Google, turn on my bedroom lights,” through your phone or Google Home units. You can change their assign them to specific rooms, and then control them with the usual light commands like turning it on/off, dimming or brightening it, setting the brightness to a certain percentage, etc.

Ikea Tradfri line of smart lights needs a hub to operate. There’s an Ikea hub that obviously works with Tradfri bulbs, but you can use a third-party hub like the Philips Hue as well. And, Ikea easily undercuts the popular Philips Hue lineup on price, while still matching them on specs.

Stay updated on Google News with the latest updates from Google Home/Assistant ecosystem.

GE’s light bulbs: Made-for-Google GE lightbulbs don’t require a hub and make using your smart bulbs as easy as saying, ‘Hey, Google’.

C by GE light bulbs connect seamlessly and automatically pair with any Google Home speaker through Bluetooth (freeing up your Wi-Fi network for other uses) and show up in the Home app. This exclusive lighting collaboration with Google means turning the bulb on or off, is as simple as screwing in a lightbulb and saying, “Hey, Google”

You can also control the lights from the Google Home app, as well as set up more advanced features like routines and schedules. No need for multiple apps on your phone to control the two different devices.

You can still use Assistant on your phone, and existing C by GE owners don’t have to replace their illumination. This is more about providing value to newcomers to smart lights who don’t want the expense or complexity of a hub. C-Life bulbs have a single color setting, but you have total control over the brightness level.

GE also launches $50 hub to connect its Bluetooth smart lights to Google Assistant

The strength of C by GE smart light bulbs has always been that they’re really easy to get started with, since they rely on Bluetooth and connect directly to a phone, so there’s no need for a hub. Because they only use Bluetooth, you can’t control them remotely or set up complicated routines very easily, since the bulbs don’t connect to much else. GE is solving that problem by announcing a hub called the C-Reach hub, that connects C by GE lights to Wi-Fi so that they can be controlled by the Google Assistant remotely as well. The C-Reach hub is a useful addition to the product line that starts to make it a lot more capable.

Smart Plugs/Switches:

Insteon’s Millions of Installed Devices work with Google Assistant

Insteon (Hub maker and smart home platform) integrates with hundreds of products and systems in the home, including HVAC units, locks, timers, lighting, cameras, music, humidity and leak sensing, garage doors and more. With a voice command to your Google Assistant, Insteon users can control their lights, wall switches, thermostats, wall outlets, plugs, outlets and more, no matter where they are in their day or what device they’re using.

To get started, customers using the Insteon Hub (2245–222) simply link their account from within the Google Home App. To know which devices, support which features, use this table on Insteon site for confirmation.

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Once paired, customers can start voice controlling their Insteon devices by saying instructions like
Lighting devices (dimmers, switches, outlets, bulbs):

• Hey Google, Turn on the living room light
• Hey Google, Turn off the basement lights
• Hey Google, Set the dining room light to 65 percent
• Hey Google, Brighten the bedroom light to 100 percent

Thermostats:

• Hey Google, Make it warmer
• Hey Google, Set the upstairs thermostat to 72 degrees
• Hey Google, Turn up the temperature by 2 degrees
• Hey Google, Set the thermostat to heating
• Hey Google, What’s the temperature inside?
• Hey Google, Turn the downstairs thermostat off

Google Assistant now works with all the major smart-home hubs like Insteon, SmartThings, Wink and Lowe’s Iris.

Now, whichever hub system you want to buy into, you’ll be able to control your devices with Google Assistant.

D-Link Smart Plugs

Smart plugs are slowly becoming a bit more popular for users who want to be able to control some of their appliances remotely. Ever left your iron plugged in, or you forgot to turn off the lights when you left home in the morning? As long as these appliances are plugged in through the D-Link Smart Plugs and you have Google Home or a phone with Google Assistant, you will be able to “unplug” them by saying “Hey Google, turn [plug name] off”, giving you peace of mind.

Deako Smart Lighting

Deako makes touch screen light switches that enable you to control any light in your home from any switch, your phone or your voice. Deako’s switches require no hub or special installation.

• Hey Google, turn off the downstairs lights, as you are walking up your stairs at night or
• Hey Google, turn on the kitchen counter lights, if you’re cooking and your hands are full.