A Beginner's Guide to Automation: Getting Automation Right

Last time, we talked about the different levels of automation . To recap: Level 1 is a simple “if this happens then do that” process. Level 2 adds fixed conditions such as the day of the week or time of the day. Level 3 introduces the concept of modes which are essentially shortcuts to represent other actions or automations and allows you to constrain your automation to certain modes. Finally, Level 4 automations are complex, allowing an arbitrary number of conditions and if statements to be chained together. The automation level provided by Alexa and Google Assistant is Level 2 with basic day and time conditions. This week we’ll discuss why Level 2 is not enough for most multi-person households. We’ll also go through some strategies to help ensure the automations you create are as reliable as possible.