How to Connect Google Home to Smart Lights

Use your voice to control lights in your home

Updated on December 16, 2020

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What to Know

You need a Google Home smart speaker, smart light bulbs, and the Google Assistant app for iOS or Android to set up smart lights.
Add your bulbs in the app by going to Explore > Compass > More > Settings > Home Control > Plus (+) > Phillips Hue.
Group lights by rooms by going to Home > Rooms. Tap the pencil icon and select a room, then tap Done.

This article explains how to use Google Home to control Philips Hue connected light bulbs and set them up by room groupings. Other options are available, such as TP-Link Kasa, LIFX, and GE. The process is generally the same with minor variations for different manufacturers.

How to Connect Your Light Bulbs to Google Home

This process consists of finding and adding your bulbs to the Google Assistant app and assigning them to a room. Follow these steps:

Open the Google Assistant app.
In the Explore section, tap the compass icon in the top right of the screen.
Tap the three-dots in the top right of the screen
Tap Settings.
Scroll down to the Services section and tap Home Control.
Tap the Plus (+) in the bottom right corner.
Scroll down and select Philips Hue.

Any other smart light bulbs you have will also appear here.
Sign in to your Philips Hue account, and all the lights you've set up will now appear in the devices under Home Control.

Philips Hue bulbs need a hub, so if you don’t already have any connected lights, Philips has starter kits for less than $50.

How to Set Up Rooms

Once you’ve connected your lights to Google Home, group them by rooms to control them all at once.

Under Home in the Google Assistant app, tap Rooms.
You’ll be asked to assign lights to a room.
Tap the pencil icon next to the light, then select which room it belongs in.
Tap Done in the top right corner
If everything went as planned, you can now try saying, “Hey Google, turn on [or off] the [living room] light.”

Control Lights With Voice and Text

Once everything is set up, use voice commands to tell Google Home to perform various actions, such as turning lights on or off, dimming or brightening lights, setting a certain brightness level, changing light color (supported bulbs only), and controlling all the lights in a room.

Because Google Assistant is controlling your lights through a Google Home device, you can also control your lights using text. Instead of using the microphone through the Google Assistant app, tap the keyboard and type a command such as, "Turn on the kitchen lights."

Now that you have your lights connected to your Google Home, leave the light switch on. If you turn off the light switch, it stops providing power to the bulb. Leave the wall switch on, and just ask Google to turn off the lights.

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