Use a personal routine for an alarm-led task that needs your calendar or reminders; choose a household automation for shared smart-home behavior. Google’s household editor walks you through adding a trigger, optional conditions, and actions. (Google Home Help, Google Nest Help)

Choose the routine type that fits

A personal routine can use personal results and may start when you dismiss an alarm. A household routine can coordinate shared devices, but it can’t provide an individual household member’s calendar or reminder results. Google’s newer automation editor is for household automations; personal routines have a separate setup path. (Google Nest Help, Google Assistant Help, Google Home Help)

Routine typeBest forPersonal calendar and reminder resultsSetup path
Personal routineAn individual task, such as a sequence after dismissing an alarmAvailable through personal results when enabledFollow Google’s personal-routine instructions; an alarm can be dismissed through the Clock app, a speaker, or a smart display, depending on the setup
Household automationShared behavior among connected home devicesNot available for an individual member’s calendar or remindersUse the household automation editor in Google Home

Create a household automation

You’ll need access to the household’s settings: Google says Home administrators and members with Settings permission can create and manage automations in the household editor. A starter is the event that begins an automation; a condition limits when it can run; an action is what a device does.

  1. Open Google Home. Start in the app where the household automation is managed.
  2. Choose Add Automation. This opens the household automation flow.
  3. Add a starter. Choose the event that should begin the automation. A starter is required for automatic execution.
  4. Add conditions if needed. Use them to limit when the starter can trigger the automation; this step is optional.
  5. Add actions. Choose what the connected devices should do.
  6. Save the automation. Google’s documented sequence ends by saving the setup. (Google Home Help)

An automation without a starter can still be started manually if it has no conditions. If you need calendar or reminder results for one person, use a personal routine instead of trying to build that task as a household automation.

When to use the script editor

Google’s automation schema requires starters and actions, makes conditions optional, and allows multiple automation blocks in one script. That structure can suit someone organizing several rules in a script; it does not mean every device or action is available in every setup. (Google Home Developers)

Edit or delete an automation

To delete a household automation, stop it first. Then open Automations, select the automation, choose Menu > Delete, and confirm. Google also says preset routines such as “Bedtime” can be deleted. (Google Home Help)

Reliability limits

Google warns that automations may fail when the internet, Wi-Fi, or Google or device-maker services are unavailable. It says not to rely on them for safety- or security-critical tasks. (Google Home Help)