How to Set Up Groups with Google Assistant

Google Assistant voice commands for your smarthome work best if your devices are in groups (Google calls these groups “rooms”). Skipping this step during setup makes using your devices harder. Here’s how to create rooms and add devices to them.

Rooms Make Voice Commands Easier

With your smarthome devices associated with rooms, Google will let you accomplish more in fewer words. Rather than tell it “turn off living room light 1, turn off living room light 2, turn off living room light 3” and so on, you name the room Living Room and then say “turn off the living room lights” to turn everything off at once.

Better yet, if the Google Home you are speaking to is physically in the same location as your smart lights, then you can add it to the same group as the lights. Then all you have to say is “turn off the lights” —Google Assistant will understand the association and turn off the correct lights.

How to Add New Devices to Rooms

To add a device to a room, open Google Assistant and tap the “Add” button.

Tap the “Set Up Device” option.

Tap “New Device” for any Google Home or Chrome Cast device, or tap “Have Something already set up?” for external devices like Philips Hue or Wink hub. For this example, we’re using the latter option.

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