So I’ve followed the below guide but do not get the 'connected devices ’ option in the smart things app. Have they moved where I can choose which devices to expose up Google home ?
Navigate to and open the SmartThings app.
Tap Menu (the three horizontal lines), tap the Settings icon in the top right, and then tap Connected services.
Tap Google, and then tap the switch next to “Allow Google Assistant to access all devices, Scenes, and Routines.” Select and deselect the devices you want Google Assistant to access.
In the Android app (don’t know about iOS) they renamed Connected Services to Linked Services. When the integration was moved off the legacy platform a few years ago the ability to choose the individual devices was lost. The integration is at the account level and Google now imports everything it understands.
I think lots of us don’t. Google speakers aren’t very good at respecting their room and home assignments so it is better that they aren’t given the chance. I try to mitigate the issue by linking SmartThings and Google using dedicated accounts that only have access to specific Locations at the SmartThings end, and aren’t used with speakers at the Google end.
No one knows for sure, but we lost the ability to limit the integration to specific devices more than 3 years ago. For the first 6 months they said they were looking at ways to bring back that ability, then they just quietly stopped talking about it.
The change occurred when they changed the way they did authorizations, and affected all integrations that used the Oauth security feature.
So it doesn’t look like they’re going to bring back that functionality anytime soon. But you never know: a lot of people have requested it.
Ok, my work around for the “everything” showing up in Google Home issue was pretty simple. In Google Home, I just created another Home called SmartThings Extras. I created the exact same rooms that I have in my primary home and then moved any devices that I didn’t want Google to use out of my primary home and into my “extra” home. That way they still exist, and they’re in the same rooms if I ever need to move them back. This keeps the devices out of GH’s reach and cleans up my Home Hub screens for devices I never want Google to use by voice or by touchscreen.
I have seen another suggestion about creating a room in Google Home and moving them there, the issue with that is they still work with voice commands, so the best way is to move them out of the primary home to another home that Google doesn’t use. That way if you say “turn off ALL the lights” and some of those you don’t want Google to normally turn off, if they are in the second location, they don’t get changed.
The problem with that approach was always that the speakers would happily ignore the fact that they were assigned to a specific Home and access devices in any Home that a user account was a member of. Whether they did or not tended to depend on what they were asked to do.
I’d like to think they fixed that nonsense, and some of the other abuses, but I don’t propose to test it.
Because they (Google) took away the ability to choose what devices get brought over from SmartThings, I created a new “home” in Google Home. I called this home “SmartThings Extras”. Now, for all of the devices that get brought over into Google Home, that I don’t want to control in Google Home, I move into my home called SmartThings Extras. Once they are moved, they are not in the primary home anymore, so the Google Home Hubs and Google Assistant no longer have access to these devices. I went to the extra step of creating the same rooms in SmartThings Extras that I have in my primary Home. That way they are easier to find if I do need to interact with them or move them back to the primary Home in the future.
Just to be clear, this was not a decision on Google’s part. You will probably find that it is still possible to select individual devices when using other home automation platforms. For example, you can still make individual selections in hubitat and vera. But not SmartThings.
It was smartthings that changed how they handled third-party authorizations, so the same issue arose with Google, Alexa, Ifttt, and other integrations at the same time. SmartThings Authorizations were moved to the account level so access to the account means access to all of its devices that can be recognized by the third-party platform.
You can find lots of discussion about this in the forums.
My error, I guess I’m just so used to Google removing, or killing off features, I thought it was a Google issue. Anyway, it was fairly easy to work around.
