Before Gemini arrived, I had been relying solely on Google Home for my smart home automation for years.
It was a simple routine: I would set up automation profiles on the Google Home app and let Google Assistant handle the controls and scheduled triggers.
With Gemini entering the mix, however, things became significantly smarter. The chatbot understands complex commands and provides contextual answers, making my smart home management feel a bit more seamless.
That is all well and good, but a major constraint still plagues Gemini and Google Assistant.
Specifically, we are missing direct native support for device states such as using the connectivity, notifications, and power status when creating routines.
It is a far cry from Samsung SmartThings, which plays beautifully with Samsung’s Modes and Routines to leverage various phone statuses.
Fortunately, I found a workaround to bridge this gap, allowing me to enjoy the same automation controls while we wait for Google to add better native starters.
I tested this by using my phone’s charging status as a trigger to dim my smart bulb through a third-party automation app, as well as via Gemini’s scheduled actions.
While these methods are far from perfect, they are solid workarounds to level up your home automation. Here is how they turned out and which method I recommend.
Automation apps
More controls for power users
Google has expanded Google Home automations, allowing for multistep starters and presence-based triggers.
However, support for this is still quite limited, especially if you want to use an Android device’s state as a starter.
Look at Apple’s ecosystem, for example. The Shortcuts app on iOS and macOS provides incredible flexibility, letting users use on-device metrics like locations, charging status, battery levels, and app notifications.
On Android, I still cannot natively use my phone’s power state to trigger actions, such as adjusting parameters on a smart device based on my battery activity.
That leaves a ton of untapped potential on the table, especially if you run a smaller network without a Nest hub or dedicated presence sensors.
This is where third-party tasker apps come in to save the day. They offer a bridge over this major gap, enabling recipes that trigger based on your phone’s current status.
The combinations here are almost endless, especially if you have multiple IoT devices connected to your home network.
While there are several options available on the Play Store, I tested this by downloading Tasker on my Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones.
Other automation app alternatives exist, but the level of flexibility and granular customization varies wildly between them.
Tasker is a paid app that will set you back $4. An alternative is MacroDroid, which offers a free trial that lets you explore the controls before committing to a purchase.
IFTTT is another premium device logic alternative with a trial, but it lacks deep integration when it comes to local device states and settings.
Create a Google Home automation
Use ‘Hey Google’ voice command
For my setup, I wanted my Xiaomi smart bulb to dim down every night the moment I plug in my Google Pixel 9 Pro XL or Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7.
First, I needed to create an automation within the Google Home app that I could later link to Tasker. To do this, follow the steps below:
- In the Google Home app, select the Home network where your device is located.
- Tap on the + icon and select Automation.
- Add a name and description to your routine.
- Choose a starter and select Hey Google.
- Enter the command you want; keep it short and easy to dictate, like “Room Activate.”
- Set a time condition if you only want this to run during a specific period.
- Tap Action, select the device, then choose Brightness to set your preferred lighting level.
After you save your new automation, it will appear on your Google Home network.
It will also be accessible through Gemini or Google Assistant, meaning you can activate it directly without an extra trigger.
But because I want my phone’s current charging state to handle the heavy lifting, we will use Tasker to fill this gap.
Create an action and profile on Tasker
Record a Gemini voice command
You can create hundreds of complex automations with Tasker.
I prefer to keep things simple without messing around with extra plug-ins or rooting my device.
In this case, I used a literal voice recording of my Gemini command to trigger the Google Home automation.
Using a recording app, I saved a clear voice clip saying “Hey Google, Room Activate” directly to my Pixel’s internal storage.
The goal is to have the phone play this audio clip aloud when it hits the charger, prompting Gemini to follow the command.
Next, I jumped into Tasker to build the task. When creating your task, add these actions in order:
- App > Launch App > Gemini
- Task > Wait > Set to 999 ms (1 second)
- Music Play > Select your recorded voice command file
- Task > Wait > Set between 10 and 20 seconds
- Kill App > Gemini
- Task > Wait > Set to 999 ms
- App > Go Home
You can also insert a media volume action right before the music playback step to guarantee your phone is loud enough to trigger its own assistant.
Subsequently, tap the play button inside Tasker to test the sequence.
Next, I created a profile in the Profiles tab to determine when the task should actually execute based on power states.
Tap the + button, select State > Power > AC or Battery Changed, and link it directly to your newly created task.
If you want to restrict this to nighttime, you can long press the current profile to append a specific time condition.
It is a bit of a clunky workaround. You have to get used to your smartphone literally talking to itself every time you plug it in.
You could theoretically pass a text command to Gemini to bypass the audio clip, but that requires root-level access, which I would not recommend to casual users.
Use Gemini’s Scheduled actions
The free and easier option
I also tried using Gemini’s scheduled actions to see if I could replicate the setup without the third-party hassle.
While it is not a direct hardware trigger equivalent, you can get comparable results by using multistep prompts.
For instance, I created a scheduled action in Gemini to check my phone’s status every evening.
My prompt goes like this:
Check my phone’s battery level every night between 7:00 and 9:00 PM, and if the battery is less than 50%, activate the Room Activate automation in Google Home.
If the battery level drops below that threshold, it fires off the dimming automation. Surprisingly, this worked decently well.
You can even map the battery percentage to the bulb’s brightness level if you want a visual representation of your juice.
I can also chain another action before the check occurs, like making sure the smart bulb is turned on before Gemini evaluates the battery.
Samsung SmartThings
Use Modes and Routines
Samsung has long enabled complex automation through its built-in Modes and Routines, making SmartThings a more powerful platform in terms of customizations and automations.
On my Galaxy Z Flip 7, integrating a device state with a SmartThings routine is incredibly seamless. It makes me wish Google would natively add this kind of device-state logic into the Android core.
To set up the same process on a Samsung device, here is what I did:
- Open Modes and Routines via your settings or home screen.
- Create a new routine and set Charging status (AC or wireless) as your If trigger.
- Choose SmartThings as your Then action.
- Select your preferred SmartThings smart home automation.
Like the other methods, you get granular controls and extra conditions to fine-tune exactly when the automation runs. You can also use Bixby to trigger this automation.
The only real catch is that SmartThings doesn’t always play nice with cross-platform setups.
Google Home and Gemini, on the other hand, work with my Xiaomi, LG, and TCL smart home apps and devices in addition to Matter.
If you’re not into third-party apps, I suggest leveraging Gemini for your home automations.
But if you’re tied to Samsung’s ecosystem, Modes and Routines is a practical tool, though you only need to make sure your smart home devices are compatible with SmartThings.
