So I am using the Google Home App for 3 years now with no issues. I have created a virtual button called Night time routine that when pressed will fire off a basic rule to shut everything down for the night and put house in sleep mode. I want to do this instead of Google telling each switch to turn off as this is 30 commands sent to the HE apposed to 1 saying press the night time routine button and the the HE basic rule taking care of the rest. Anyways this is why I am trying to expose the virtual button to my google home so that I can press it when I say Good Night to google home. Problem is that I can open the Google Home app and see the vButton in the devices list and I select it then press update button and then the done button. When I went to Google Home on my phone and refreshed it the vButton never shows up. So I go back to the Google Home app in HE the vButton is no longer selected and in the list. So I select it again, hit update and then done and then go back in the HE app to see if it's in the list and it's there but if I wait about 60 seconds and I refresh the Google App page in HE it's gone. Why is this vbutton being removed? I tried with my laundry vButton as well and same issue but I can add switches and lights no issues. Is this a bug or a feature I am not aware of?
Troubleshooting things i have done. Ran a minor update to latest minor version. Rebooted the hub.
Any suggestions?
I think Google may only accept certain device types. If you want to use the built-in integration (app) you may need to use a virtual switch instead.
Yeah I have vSwitches that work no issue.. I can make it a switch, it's not ideal but I could make it work if I have no other choice.
If this is the case though the app should be updated to not show devices that cannot be added to Google Home. Do you know is there anything in the log that would state why it was removed?
I am reading this at the top of the app now..
It does not say it will be removed from the list but it will be ignored. Interesting, also I wonder why if this is the case why a Google home would not support a button.
There is a slim chance I am wrong, but I do remember reading that there was quite a limited list of device types Google support, but that was a little while ago. The behaviour you have seen (and I confirmed just now) makes me feel relatively confident this is the case.
This entry appeared in the log BTW...
I would expect the reasoning could be a couple of things. One may be resources to develop the ability for the GH platform to cater for them, the other may be the slight increase in complexity (I'm guessing). Turning a switch on or off has two main inputs, the switch and the on or off. Many HA platforms and button devices support more than one button per device, as well as different actions like push, hold, double-tap, etc. This would add to the complexity of the voice commands that would be required.
In your case what I would suggest as an alternative is to use the built-in virtual switch driver and set the switch to turn off automatically after 500ms. This way it essentially acts like a button, but using the switch device type. You can adjust the auto-off option in the Device Edit Page after you create the virtual switch.
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Yeah sound smart ill just make a basic rule that says when it turns on turn it back of like one of those crazy boxes with the manual switches and the machine turns itself back off that you see on the internet lol.
Thanks for the help!!
Oh even better I forgot in the new devices that there is an auto off feature ill just use that set to 500ms I think that is what you were saying I just dint catch it.
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Yep, that's what I was talking about. Allows a switch to behave like a button. Can also be useful in parts of the HE platform where a switch is often an option to turn on / off, you can use them in those scenarios as well, without needing to account for them switching between on and off.
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