Google Home

if you use Philips Hue, then you don’t need ST hub for lights.

But you still need the Hue bridge, right?

yes, you need a hue bridge because the light bulbs are using the zigbee protocol to communicate with the HUB and GH doesn’t have zigbee or zwave.

I am not sure if it changed but you could not use the phone without GH hooked up. Once it is and connected to ST then it works from the phone. Not sure why.

This looks very helpful and may be exactly what I need to reliably turn off all the downstairs lights with Google Home (and Christmas lights for that matter).

I thought I solved this by creating with a simulated switch that would then run routines to turn off the lights, but I ran into an issue just last night where if some of the lights were individually turned on and the simulated switch was still in the ‘off’ position, I could not use this switch to run the routine. I had to turn the switch on first, then off again. Cumbersome and not very effective.

I will definitely try this method tonight. I’ve only had ST for about 2 weeks, and it truly can become an addiction. I’ve only started dabbling with device handlers and virtual devices, it’s like a whole new ballgame!

Be sure to check out my new app which should make some of what you guys are doing a bit easier.

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By “hub” I meant the google home speaker.

Yeah I figured that was what you meant and I did not have any luck when I just had a pixel before I got GH. Once I got GH it works on the phone also.

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The GH device is a client device logging into the Google cloud. In effect it acts as the bridge for your commands from your phone or otherwise to get onto your home network bypassing your firewalls to talk to any local devices you might have like your hue bridge. In theory if you had a phone or tablet permanently placed at home it could provide a similar service but clearly this isn’t available yet.

Get Chromecast Audio and you can cast to any speaker or home audio amp. I have mine hooked up to my surround sound system.

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So I just purchased a few GH to replace some of my Sonos. I hope I’m missing something because I can’t discover the GH in SmartThings. I want to use it as an assistant but also use the speaker to play music when I enter the room, I could do this with Smart Lighting and the Sonos. However I cant find a way to do this with the GH.

Please tell me I can simply turn on music on the GH when my motion detector triggers?

No can do. The GH can initiate actions, but you can’t make it take an action except by talking to it.

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The only way to control GH (and Alexa too) is with a voice command. It can’t react to other events and can’t be activated by another service. Closest you can get is to tell one GH to cast to another, which will start music playing on the target device.

You can control music on Alexa using the Amazon Alexa app on phones and computers. The app lets you pick which device will play what music source also.

Oh no. Here I thought this was the perfect device. It’s such a waste to have a GH and Sonos Play 1 in the same room when GH has a decent speaker in it already.
So nowni have to make a choice. Do I want a personalised assistant or automated music. Sigh, can’t believe I couldn’t have both in one device.

Why can’t you have a personal assistant and automated music with your GH.
I use GH to play my Google Play Music playlists, play the radio etc.
I have probably missed what you are getting at.

He wants to have music start automatically when ST detects motion on a certain sensor. Problem is that ST can’t trigger an action on GH, it has to be done through the cast app on a phone or by voice command.

I want Smartthings to trigger GH to play the radio/music playlist. For example,
I have your motion sensors in my dining room. Whenever I pass by the room, I have it turn on my dining room lamps if dark enough. I also had it turn on my Sonos to start playing music for the next 10 minutes. If no activity after 10 mins, turn everything off.
I want to replace my Sonos with the GH in this automation with the bonus assistant. But SmartThings does not have any device handlers to recognize GH as a speaker or device for that matter.

Using Outlook for iOS

Check this thread, there’s a workaround listed for voice notifications. No idea if or how well it works, but worth a shot? Maybe it can work for music too?

[quote=“SmartThingsJay, post:1102, topic:48191”]
I want Smartthings to trigger GH to…[/quote]

The problem is that from the perspective of an external system, GH (and the Echo, for the time being) is a client, not a service.