Since I’ve seen a lot of questions asked about using the new openHAB action @MARZIMA and the rest of the team created for us, I figured it would be a good idea (and practice for me) to create a how-to video on it, to show how easy it really is. The basic process is to expose the items you want to have control over to Google Home by adding tags (currently Lighting and Switchable are supported) in the .items configuration file. The specific types/places for the tags are shown in the video. The next step is to link the openHAB action (via myopenhab) within the Google Home app. The new items will automatically sync into the Google Home app (or a manual sync can be executed if any changes are made after linking the action). The video shows all of these steps, in hopefully a clear/concise manner.
Please let me know if you find this helpful, as it’s my first foray into video editing. Thanks!
@MARZIMA and others who contributed to the development of this action, thank you all once again for adding this killer functionality to openHAB! While I myself may not be best suited for contributing via software development, I’m hoping this can act as my small contribution to the community.
You’re welcome! I’m having fun making these how-to videos, so I will definitely be making more in the future (about my sensors, my OH setup, etc…). Subscribe if you like!
Have you tried it with rollershutters already? Is is similar cumbersome as in alexa? I haven’t seen a voice command like up and down, so I’d presume (if at all) you’d do this via a dimmer as well (Set living room blinds to 0%)
@bernd_boehm I have not tried it with rollershutters because I don’t own any, but given the current tags available ( Switchable and Lighting ), they only allow ON or OFF and a dimmer level setting (which means you’ll hear Google Home respond “Ok, setting your Living Room RollerShutters volume to 50%”)
I guess you could do a workaround (create a switch item with the label “Living Room Rollershutter Up” and “Living Room Rollershutter Down”, and map the switches individually to UP/DOWN commands (use the expire binding to make the switch turn off automatically after 30 seconds or so). That way, you can say “Ok Google - set Living Room Rollershutter Up” which is a bit less awkward.
Use the ‘Shortcuts’ link in the Google Home app to set a meaningful phrase to your device actions -
eg. 1. When I say…
Close blind 1
The Google Assistant should…
Turn on blind 1
eg. 2. When I say…
Open blind 1
The Google Assistant should…
Turn off blind 1
Just be aware you can’t string two devices together with shortcuts. ie. “Close blind 1 and close blind 2” doesn’t work. “Turn on blind 1 and turn on blind 2” works.
Hi everybody. Do you have any idea why I cannot connect my Google Home to openHAB? I have exposed the items, I login to myopenhab (through the assistant or the google home app), I authorise the connection and when I return to the app, it tells me that it failed and I need to try again later.
I have tried using an iPhone and an Android phone. I have also tried leaving only one item in openHAB. No luck…
Can you post your items file? Most likely, either the tags are incorrectly typed/spaced, or you have tags that aren’t supported yet (and the Action currently fails without warning when that is the case).
Ah, was it the hue emulation add on, or the binding? I didn’t seem to need to remove either of those, but then I never fully configured/used my Hue emulation add on (once I saw the official action was in progress).
It was the hue binding. I never installed the hue emulation add-on. I tried adding it back (once I made sure that all my items are playing nicely - I must have said “hey google, sync my devices” about 100 times ) and so far, it seems to be working. I’ll let you know If something goes wrong. Thanks a lot!
EDIT: I tried it a third time, then it worked Below you can find the original issue.
EDIT2: I think I know what the problem was. In PaperUI I exposed the items for “apps” (like Google) too late.
in another thread you told me that support for German language will follow, but I was very surprised to see in my google home app (on my smartphone) that openhab is listed as an available plugin.
So I gave it a try without success:
As described in your video I added the [ “Switchable” ] tag to one of my items (a Sonoff tasmota mqtt switch).
I connected my local openhab with myopenhab cloud and can successfully use the habdroid app.
Then I added openhab as a “device” in google home app on my smartphone, as described in your video.
BUT even though myopenhab.org lists “Google” as connected application (see screenshot below), I don’t see any devices on my smartphone (google home app). So I added openhab as “device” again on the smartphone and now I see Google twice listed in openhab.org but still no devices on the smartphone :-/
Any idea what’s wrong? Does this mean that German is STILL not supported?
Well, it “just” started working once I told my google assistant to synchronize my devices. then I said something like “turn on xxx” and they appeared in the openhab cloud menu. I am not sure at all but I have the feeling it just takes some time to sync.
Same issue. Still, after many months, Surely people are not giving up on this?
I feel its a problem with my .items file:
Switch Coffee_Machine [ “Switchable” ] {mqtt=">[broker:/cmnd/sonoff-gpo3/POWER:command:ON:ON],>[broker:/cmnd/sonoff-gpo3/POWER:command:OFF:OFF]"} myopenhab.org also says Google Application was authorized.
Google home app says Accounts now linked but then pops up “Something went wrong. Try Again”
I would really like to get this working. Please help.
) and so far, it seems to be working. I’ll let you know If something goes wrong. Thanks a lot! 
Below you can find the original issue.