Google Home Assistant groups

michaelpwilson

Hey everyone. I bought two smart plugs that are compatible with Google Home. I successfully added them to the Home app.


Both of the plugs are connected to lamps. Google seemed to realise they were both lights, and put both of them in a group. Now when I open the Google Home app on Android, I go down to my Living Room, and I see "Living room lights" with two devices in it. If I tap on this, a new page loads which says "Living Room lights" and underneath that "2 lights", under which it has a power button. If I tap the "2 lights" text, I can select which lamp to turn on or off. However, if I tap the power button instead, both lamps go on or off.


This would be fine, except I don't want the lights to be in a group. If I use the voice command "hey Google, turn on the living room lamp", or "hey Google, turn on the light bowl", both lamps will go on, instead of the one I asked for.


Does anyone know how to remove a device from a group, or how to get Google Home to stop putting devices into groups automatically? I've searched high and low for where these groups might be controlled, but can't find any information that doesn't involve code. I've also tried renaming the "Light bowl" plug to "Bowl", hoping it would remove it from the "Living Room lights" group, but this didn't work to ungroup them.


Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

THE ALM

michaelpwilson wrote: »

Hey everyone. I bought two smart plugs that are compatible with Google Home. I successfully added them to the Home app.


Both of the plugs are connected to lamps. Google seemed to realise they were both lights, and put both of them in a group. Now when I open the Google Home app on Android, I go down to my Living Room, and I see "Living room lights" with two devices in it. If I tap on this, a new page loads which says "Living Room lights" and underneath that "2 lights", under which it has a power button. If I tap the "2 lights" text, I can select which lamp to turn on or off. However, if I tap the power button instead, both lamps go on or off.


This would be fine, except I don't want the lights to be in a group. If I use the voice command "hey Google, turn on the living room lamp", or "hey Google, turn on the light bowl", both lamps will go on, instead of the one I asked for.


Does anyone know how to remove a device from a group, or how to get Google Home to stop putting devices into groups automatically? I've searched high and low for where these groups might be controlled, but can't find any information that doesn't involve code. I've also tried renaming the "Light bowl" plug to "Bowl", hoping it would remove it from the "Living Room lights" group, but this didn't work to ungroup them.


Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

If you open the Home app and select settings at the top, scroll down to more settings, select the home page at the top and this will bring up a list of the various rooms and devices in them. Select the cog icon and sort as required. Best rename them something different if names are similar.

michaelpwilson

Thanks THE_ALM, I tried what you suggested but there doesn't seem to be any way to even see the groups from the page you indicated. Therefore I can't modify the group to remove the smart plug from it. Thanks anyway for your help, I appreciate it.

RunDMC

michaelpwilson wrote: »

Thanks THE_ALM, I tried what you suggested but there doesn't seem to be any way to even see the groups from the page you indicated. Therefore I can't modify the group to remove the smart plug from it. Thanks anyway for your help, I appreciate it.

I have a similar situation in my kitchen. I have four lights, Table, Cupboards, Sink and the Main light. They are all in a group that Google created automatically called Kitchen. But I can tell Google to turn on or of the individual lights by name, eg. "Hey Google, turn off the sink light", or I can turn them all on or off by saying "Turn off the Kitchen lights".

Does this help?

R

THE ALM

michaelpwilson wrote: »

Thanks THE_ALM, I tried what you suggested but there doesn't seem to be any way to even see the groups from the page you indicated. Therefore I can't modify the group to remove the smart plug from it. Thanks anyway for your help, I appreciate it.

Strange, when you go into settings, more settings do you have Your, Assistant, Services and Home listed along the top?

If you go into Home does it list all you rooms with devices in each?

Under Home is the top listing 'Your Home'? If I select that also it will bring up a list titled 'Rooms,groups and devices' and I can pick one of the rooms and add and remove devices from here.

Mickeroo

Anyone have any issues setting up speaker groups? I have 4 minis around the place (2 of the newer nest ones and 2 of the older ones).

I have a 'Home Group' for the entire house and a 'Ground Floor' group for just the downstair ones. No matter what I do I can't get them to recognise the speaker groups even though they seem to be set up in the app.

Any ideas?

Stoner

Mickeroo wrote: »

Anyone have any issues setting up speaker groups? I have 4 minis around the place (2 of the newer nest ones and 2 of the older ones).

I have a 'Home Group' for the entire house and a 'Ground Floor' group for just the downstair ones. No matter what I do I can't get them to recognise the speaker groups even though they seem to be set up in the app.

Any ideas?

Just a quick thought.

I've three speakers in a group

I think when I tried to add the mini I couldn't

Can a mini be in a group now?


I know when I broadcast the mini is out of sync

Mickeroo

Stoner wrote: »

Just a quick thought.

I've three speakers in a group

I think when I tried to add the mini I couldn't

Can a mini be in a group now?


I know when I broadcast the mini is out of sync

Is it only the google homes and hubs that can be grouped? It certainly lets me add the minis to a group in the app at least.

I also wanted to set up a pair for stereo sound in the kitchen last night and I noticed when I go to pairing options it seems like you cant pair older gen mini with the new one.

michaelpwilson

RunDMC wrote: »

I have a similar situation in my kitchen. I have four lights, Table, Cupboards, Sink and the Main light. They are all in a group that Google created automatically called Kitchen. But I can tell Google to turn on or of the individual lights by name, eg. "Hey Google, turn off the sink light", or I can turn them all on or off by saying "Turn off the Kitchen lights".

Does this help?

R

Hi RunDMC, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me - when I try to switch on or off either of the lights in the group by their respective name - e.g. "turn off living room lamp" - both of the lights go off. It shouldn't be this difficult to group or ungroup devices in Google Home, surely. Thanks again for your input, much appreciated.

michaelpwilson

THE ALM wrote: »

Strange, when you go into settings, more settings do you have Your, Assistant, Services and Home listed along the top?

If you go into Home does it list all you rooms with devices in each?

Under Home is the top listing 'Your Home'? If I select that also it will bring up a list titled 'Rooms,groups and devices' and I can pick one of the rooms and add and remove devices from here.

Hi THE_ALM, sorry for the delay in replying to your message. Everything you said is correct, and is how it appears on my phone. It is possible to remove devices as you say, but I don't know how to stop the two living room lights being put into a group... Thanks again for your help!