Turn Your Phone into a Home Control Dashboard or Remote.
Google recently launched a new app called Action Blocks as a dedicated feature for Android. This app helps people take advantage of Google Assistant by placing Google Assistant shortcuts on the home screen. Anyway, anyone can take advantage of these and use them to create reminders, set alarms for a specific time, play your favorite playlist, and more with a single tap.
The best part is that you can use it on your Android phone and turn it into a home remote control to control smart lights, TVs, doors, cameras and any other smart gadget that supports Google Assistant. You can even use your old phone to leave it on your desk as a smart home dashboard. Or you can use it on your phone as a remote control. Let’s set it up.
Turn your old phone into a home control panel
1. Set up Smart Home devices in your Google account.
First, you need to set up all your smart home gadgets using the Google Home app. To do this, simply download and open the Google Home app click the plus icon Set up device set up a new device in your home select home and complete the setup process.
Read: 10 Google Assistant Tricks To Replace Android Apps
The Google Home app helps you connect your device to Wi-Fi and fully set it up. After that, you can access the device using Google Assistant. For example, you can turn on smart lights by saying, “Ok Google, turn on the office lights.”
2. Configure action blocks
Google Assistant supports voice communication, and in order to use it as a home control device, you need to download the Action Blocks app. Once downloaded, open the Action Box app, click Create Action Box at the bottom of the app, click Create Custom Action, and enter the command.
I suggest you turn off the Always say action out loud option so that it doesn’t bother you all the time. You can also test the command by clicking the Test Action button and clicking Next. Select an image, give the command a name, and click Save Action Box.
A pop-up window will appear asking you to add a widget to your home screen, click “Add automatically”. It will add a widget to your home screen, you can press and hold it to adjust the placement and size of the widget.
Now, when you click on the action block, it will open Google Assistant and turn on the light or execute the command you specify. You can even control its brightness, color, and more directly from Google Assistant. Likewise, it works with any smart home product. You can do the same for all of your smart home gadgets in your home. If you are using it as a smart home control panel, I suggest you use landscape mode.
Last words
As with the Google Nest Hub, you can also access the Google Assistant by waking up “Ok Google”. And you can also adjust the brightness and colors for the bulbs, change the volume for smart devices like speakers, open nest cameras, access your photos, email, and also access commuting from your Google account. But one feature you might be missing is the individualized suggestions for each person. And also remember that everyone in the house can access it. This reminds me a bit of Siri shortcuts for iOS, but much simpler. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.