Earlier today we shared with you the confusing message that Google Home users reported hearing from their devices, warning them of some automation-related functionality being shut down next month. Concerned about how impactful those changes could be, we reached out to Google in hopes of getting some clarification — and we recently heard back with new details about what’s really going on.
About a day ago, Google Home users began sharing reports of their devices online, giving the following warning:
As you know, Phone Activities and Automations will no longer be available starting the first week of May.
But what did it actually mean? We weren’t aware of any changes coming to automation, and considering how much work some of us had put into setting them up, the news that we were about to lose something seriously concerned users.
At the time, we wondered about that “Phone Actions” language and wondered if this change could be limited to automations that work specifically on phone settings. And as it turns out, that’s exactly what Google wanted here. The company states:
We wanted to clarify that we’re not removing automations in May, we’re removing phone-related actions in automations (i.e. check battery level, set/unset, do not disturb, and set your phone’s volume). Home automation will continue to work and any home-related actions will remain part of your automation and remain fully functional.
Granted, any loss in functionality isn’t a big deal – we love being able to do this More things through automation, no fewer – But in the broader scheme of things, the impact here seems much smaller than it could have been. And perhaps more importantly, most of our automation is going to be unaffected.
