Where is the connection settings in the google home app

The google_assistant integration allows you to control things via Google Assistant on your mobile, tablet or Google Home device.

Automatic setup via Home Assistant Cloud

With Home Assistant Cloud, you can connect your Home Assistant instance in a few simple clicks to Google Assistant. With Home Assistant Cloud you don’t have to deal with dynamic DNS, SSL certificates or opening ports on your router. Just log in via the user interface and a secure connection with the cloud will be established. Home Assistant Cloud requires a paid subscription after a 30-day free trial.

For Home Assistant Cloud Users, documentation can be found here.

Manual setup

The Google Assistant integration (without Home Assistant Cloud) requires a bit more setup than most due to the way Google requires Assistant Apps to be set up.

To use Google Assistant, your Home Assistant configuration has to be externally accessible with a hostname and SSL certificate. If you haven’t already configured that, you should do so before continuing. If you make DNS changes to accomplish this, please ensure you have allowed up to the full 48 hours for DNS changes to propagate, otherwise, Google may not be able to reach your server. Once you have confirmed you can reach your Home Assistant from outside your home network, you can set up the Google integration:

Google Cloud Platform configuration

1. Create a new project in the Actions on Google console.

   1. Click New Project and give your project a name.
   2. Click on the Smart Home card, then click the Start Building button.
   3. Click Name your Smart Home action under Quick Setup to give your Action a name - Home Assistant will appear in the Google Home app as [test] <Action Name>
   4. Click on the Overview tab at the top of the page to go back.
   5. Click Build your Action, then click Add Action(s).
   6. Add your Home Assistant URL: https://[YOUR HOME ASSISTANT URL:PORT]/api/google_assistant in the Fulfillment URL box, replace the [YOUR HOME ASSISTANT URL:PORT] with the domain / IP address and the port under which your Home Assistant is reachable.
   7. Click Save.
   8. Click the three little dots (more) icon in the upper right corner, select Project settings
   9. Make note of the Project ID that are listed on the GENERAL tab of the Settings page.

2. Account linking is required for your app to interact with Home Assistant.

   1. Start by going back to the Overview tab.
   2. Click on Setup account linking under the Quick Setup section of the Overview page.
   3. If asked, leave options as they default No, I only want to allow account creation on my website and select Next.
   4. Then if asked, for the Linking type select OAuth and Authorization Code. Click Next
   5. Enter the following:
      1. Client ID: https://oauth-redirect.googleusercontent.com/r/[YOUR_PROJECT_ID]. (Replace [YOUR_PROJECT_ID] with your project ID from above)
      2. Client Secret: Anything you like, Home Assistant doesn’t need this field.
      3. Authorization URL: https://[YOUR HOME ASSISTANT URL:PORT]/auth/authorize. (Replace [YOUR HOME ASSISTANT URL:PORT] with your values.)
      4. Token URL (replace with your actual URL): https://[YOUR HOME ASSISTANT URL:PORT]/auth/token. (Replace [YOUR HOME ASSISTANT URL:PORT] with your values.) Click Next, then Next again.
   6. In the Configure your client Scopes textbox, type email and click Add scope, then type name and click Add scope again.
   7. Do NOT check Google to transmit clientID and secret via HTTP basic auth header.
   8. Click Next, then click Save
   

3. Select the Develop tab at the top of the page, then in the upper right hand corner select the Test button to generate the draft version Test App. If you don’t see this option, go to the Test tab instead, click on the Settings button in the top right below the header, and ensure On device testing is enabled (if it isn’t, enable it).

4. Add the google_assistant integration configuration to your configuration.yaml file and restart Home Assistant following the configuration guide below.

5. Add services in the Google Home App (Note that app versions may be slightly different.)

   1. Open the Google Home app.
   2. Click the + button on the top left corner, click Set up device, in the “Set up a device” screen click “Works with Google”. You should have [test] <Action Name> listed under ‘Add new’. Selecting that should lead you to a browser to login your Home Assistant instance, then redirect back to a screen where you can set rooms and nicknames for your devices if you wish.

If you’ve added Home Assistant to your phone’s home screen, you have to first remove it from home screen, otherwise, this HTML5 app will show up instead of a browser. Using it would prevent Home Assistant redirecting back to the Google Home app.

Allow Other Users

If you want to allow other household users to control the devices:

1. Open the project you created in the Actions on Google console.
2. Click Test on the top of the page, then click Simulator located to the page left, then click the three little dots (more) icon in the upper right corner of the console.
3. Click Manage user access. This redirects you to the Google Cloud Platform IAM permissions page.
4. Click ADD at the top of the page.
   1. Enter the email address of the user you want to add.
   2. Click Select a role and choose Project < Viewer.
   3. Click SAVE
   4. Copy and share the Actions project link (https://console.actions.google.com/project/YOUR_PROJECT_ID/simulator) with the new user.
5. Have the new user open the link with their own Google account, agree to the Terms of Service popup, then select “Start Testing”, select VERSION - Draft in the dropdown, and click “Done”.
6. Have the new user go to their Google Assistant app to add [test] your app name to their account.

Enable Device Sync

If you want to support active reporting of state to Google’s server (configuration option report_state) and synchronize Home Assistant devices with the Google Home app (google_assistant.request_sync service), you will need to create a service account. It is recommended to set up this configuration key as it also allows the usage of the following command, “Ok Google, sync my devices”. Once you have set up this component, you will need to call this service (or command) each time you add a new device in Home Assistant that you wish to control via the Google Assistant integration. This allows you to update devices without unlinking and relinking an account (see below).

1. Service Account
   1. In the Google Cloud Platform Console, go to the Create Service account key page.
   2. At the top left of the page next to “Google Cloud Platform” logo, select your project created in the Actions on Google console. Confirm this by reviewing the project ID and it ensure it matches.
   3. From the Service account list, select CREATE SERVICE ACCOUNT.
   4. In the Service account name field, enter a name.
   5. In the Service account ID field, enter an ID.
   6. From the Role list, select Service Accounts > Service Account Token Creator.
   7. Click CONTINUE and then DONE. You are returned to the service account list, and your new account is shown.
   8. Click the three dots menu under Actions next to your new account, and click Manage keys. You are taken to a Keys page.
   9. Click ADD KEY then Create new key. Leave the key type as JSON and click CREATE. A JSON file that contains your key downloads to your computer.
   10. Use the information in this file or the file directly to add to the service_account key in the configuration.
   11. Click Close.
2. HomeGraph API
   1. Go to the Google API Console.
   2. At the top left of the page next to “Google Cloud Platform” logo, select your project created in the Actions on Google console. Confirm this by reviewing the project ID and it ensure it matches.
   3. Click Enable HomeGraph API.
3. Try “OK Google, sync my devices” - the Google Home app should import your exposed Home Assistant devices and prompt you to assign them to rooms.

Enable Local Fulfillment

Google Assistant devices can send their commands locally to Home Assistant allowing them to respond faster.

Your Home Assistant instance needs to be connected to the same network as the Google Assistant device that you’re talking to so that it can be discovered via mDNS discovery (UDP broadcasts).

Your Google Assistant devices will still communicate via the internet to:

• Get credentials to establish a local connection.
• Send commands that involve a secure device.
• Send commands if local fulfillment fails.

The HTTP integration must not be configured to use an SSL certificate with the ssl_certificate option.

This is because the Google Assistant device will connect directly to the IP of your Home Assistant instance and will fail if it encounters an invalid SSL certificate.

For secure remote access, use a reverse proxy such as the NGINX SSL add-on instead of directing external traffic straight to Home Assistant.

1. Open the project you created in the Actions on Google console.
2. Click Develop on the top of the page, then click Actions located in the hamburger menu on the top left.
3. Upload app.js from here for both Node and Chrome by clicking the Upload Javascript files button.
4. Add device scan configuration:
   1. Click + New scan config if no configuration exists
   2. Select MDNS
   3. Set MDNS service name to _home-assistant._tcp.local
   4. Click Add field, then under Select a field choose Name
   5. Enter a new Value field set to .*\._home-assistant\._tcp\.local
5. Check the box Support local query under Add capabilities.
6. Save your changes.
7. Either wait for 30 minutes, or restart all your Google Assistant devices.
8. Restart Home Assistant Core.
9. With a Google Assistant device, try saying “OK Google, sync my devices.” This can be helpful to avoid issues, especially if you are enabling local fulfillment sometime after adding cloud Google Assistant support.

You can debug the setup by following these instructions.

YAML Configuration

Now add your setup to your configuration.yaml file, such as:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
google_assistant:
  project_id: YOUR_PROJECT_ID
  service_account: !include SERVICE_ACCOUNT.JSON
  report_state: true
  exposed_domains:
    - switch
    - light
  entity_config:
    switch.kitchen:
      name: CUSTOM_NAME_FOR_GOOGLE_ASSISTANT
      aliases:
        - BRIGHT_LIGHTS
        - ENTRY_LIGHTS
    light.living_room:
      expose: false
      room: LIVING_ROOM

Configuration Variables

project_id string Required

Project ID from the Actions on Google console (looks like words-2ab12)

secure_devices_pin string (Optional)

Pin code to say when you want to interact with a secure device.

service_account map Required

Service account information. You can use an include statement with your downloaded JSON file, enter data here directly or use secrets file to populate.

private_key string Required

Private key in PEM format

client_email string Required

Service email address

report_state boolean (Optional, default: false)

Actively report state changes on entities. This speeds up response time for actions affecting multiple entities since Google Assistant knows pre-hand what state they are. It is also required for some features on visual controls.

expose_by_default boolean (Optional, default: true)

Expose devices in all supported domains by default. If exposed_domains domains is set, only these domains are exposed by default. If expose_by_default is set to false, devices have to be manually exposed in entity_config.

exposed_domains list (Optional)

List of entity domains to expose to Google Assistant if expose_by_default is set to true. This has no effect if expose_by_default is set to false.

entity_config map (Optional)

Entity specific configuration for Google Assistant

YOUR_ENTITY_ID map (Optional)

Entity to configure

name string (Optional)

Name of the entity to show in Google Assistant

expose boolean (Optional, default: true)

Force an entity to be exposed/excluded.

aliases list (Optional)

Aliases that can also be used to refer to this entity

room string (Optional)

Allows for associating this device to a Room in Google Assistant.

Available domains

Currently, the following domains are available to be used with Google Assistant, listed with their default types:

• alarm_control_panel (arm/disarm)
• camera (streaming, requires compatible camera)
• group (on/off)
• input_boolean (on/off)
• input_select (option/setting/mode/value)
• scene (on)
• script (on)
• switch (on/off)
• fan (on/off/speed percentage/preset mode)
• light (on/off/brightness/rgb color/color temp)
• lock
• cover (on/off/set position)
• media_player (on/off/set volume (via set volume)/source (via set input source)/control playback)
• climate (temperature setting, hvac_mode)
• vacuum (dock/start/stop/pause)
• sensor (temperature setting for temperature sensors and humidity setting for humidity sensors)
• humidifier (humidity setting/on/off/mode)

Some of these devices may not display correctly in the Google Home app, such as media_player, however voice commands will still work.

Secure Devices

Certain devices are considered secure, including anything in the lock domain, alarm_control_panel domain and covers with device types door, garage or gate.

By default these cannot be opened by Google Assistant unless a secure_devices_pin is set up. To allow opening, set the secure_devices_pin to something and you will be prompted to speak the pin when opening the device. Closing or locking these devices does not require a pin.

For the Alarm Control Panel if a code is set it must be the same as the secure_devices_pin. If code_arm_required is set to false the system will arm without prompting for the pin.

Room/Area support

Entities that have not been explicitly assigned to rooms but have been placed in Home Assistant areas will return room hints to Google with the devices in those areas.

Some devices, such as scene or script, must be assigned to an area before other members of a shared Google Home Household can use them. This is because household members in a shared Google Home will not be able to view devices that are not assigned to a room unless they were the user who linked the service to Google Home. This issue isn’t immediately apparent because script and scene devices aren’t visible in the main Google Home dashboard.

Climate Operation Modes

There is not an exact 1-1 match between Home Assistant and Google Assistant for the available operation modes. Here are the modes that are currently available:

• off
• heat
• cool
• heatcool (auto)
• fan-only
• dry
• eco

TV Channels

There is no TV channel object in Home Assistant. TV channel can only be changed by number, not by name (for example, Turn to channel two).

Troubleshooting

404 errors on request sync

Syncing from Google Assistant may fail after a period of time, likely around 30 days, due to the fact that your Actions on Google app is technically in testing mode and has never been published. Eventually, it seems that the test expires. Control of devices will continue to work but syncing may not. If you say “Ok Google, sync my devices” and get the response “Unable to sync Home Assistant” (or whatever you named your project), this can usually be resolved by going back to your test app in the Actions on Google console and clicking Simulator under TEST. Regenerate the draft version Test App and try asking Google to sync your devices again. If regenerating the draft does not work, go back to the Action section and just hit the enter key for the URL to recreate the Preview.

Syncing from Home Assistant will always work and will automatically update entity changes.

The request_sync service requires that the initial sync from Google includes the agent_user_id. If not, the service will log an error that reads something like “Request contains an invalid argument”. If this happens, then unlink the account from Home Control and relink.

The request_sync service may fail with a 404 if the project_id of the HomeGraph API differs from the project_id of the Actions SDK found in the preferences of your project on Actions on Google console. Resolve this by:

1. Removing your project from the Google Cloud API Console.
2. Add a new project to the Actions on Google console Here you get a new project_id.
3. Run through the previously mentioned [Actions on Google console] setup instructions until the step to create a service_account.
4. Once you begin to create a new service_account in the [Google Cloud API Console], ensure you select the project created in [Actions on Google console] by verifying the project_id.
5. Enable HomeGraph API to the new project.

Verify that the Google Assistant is available on https://[YOUR HOME ASSISTANT URL:PORT]/api/google_assistant If it is working it should return 405: Method Not Allowed when opened in a browser or via curl.

403 errors on request sync

The request_sync service may fail with a 403 if the HomeGraph API is not enabled. Go to Google API Console and verify that HomeGraph API is enabled for your project.

404 errors on report state

If you receive 404 errors linked to reporting state in your log, Home Assistant is reporting state for entities that were never synced to Google. Ask your Google Home to Sync my devices or run the service google_assistant.request_sync.

Error during linking: “Could not update the setting. Please check your connection”

Your fulfillment URL may be invalid or unreachable. Recheck the Fulfillment URL as specified in Manual Setup and verify that it’s publicly reachable.

NGINX

When using NGINX, ensure that your proxy_pass line does not have a trailing /, as this will result in errors. Your line should look like:

proxy_pass http://localhost:8123;

Unlink and relink

If you’re having trouble with Account linking failed after you unlinked your service, try clearing the browser history and cache.

Failed linking - Could not update the setting. Please check your connection

If you’re having trouble linking your account, with the error message Could not update the setting. Please check your connection after logging into your Home Assistant instance, try setting expose_by_default: false then exposing a single simple device (light or switch preferably). It is also worth checking if any home ad blocker is disabled if you are having issues.

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