Building a smart home is easy, but creating an ecosystem where all your gadgets work together without manual control is trickier. Although being able to turn off your home's lights or adjust the thermostat remotely from another country is neat, smart home gadgets truly become smart when they complete actions on their own.

I've got a strong collection of accessories in my smart home, from speakers, displays, and cameras to thermostats and lights. They all talk to each other and complete actions without me ever picking up my phone, and it's thanks to the Google Home app's automations.

I use Google Home to run these five automations in my smart home, but you can build them in any ecosystem, including Apple Home or Home Assistant. If you want to get more out of your smart home accessories and aren't sure where to start with automation, consider this your launchpad.

This easy to install device alerts me as soon as my mail arrives.

Your smart home cameras are capable of recording events and 24/7 video, if you've got the right gear. However, for those that also own a smart speaker or display, they can do much more than that. I built an automation that broadcasts a message that my cameras are recording when they detect motion during a specific time range.

As a reminder, Google Home automations are composed of Starters , Conditions (optional) , and Actions . In this case, the starter is the living room camera detecting motion, the condition is the time range, and the action is the broadcast.

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