Google is killing Assistant. Your Nest speakers, smart displays, routines, and voice commands will stop working next month. But your smart home doesn't have to die with it. This guide walks you through moving everything to Home Assistant, device by device, routine by routine. Most people finish in a weekend.
Let's cut through the confusion. Google has been quietly dismantling its smart home platform since 2024. Here's the timeline of what happened and what's coming.
Google removed Conversational Actions, breaking thousands of third-party voice integrations. Works with Nest program ended. Speaker groups became unreliable. Routines lost features.
Google pivoted its voice strategy entirely to Gemini. Classic Google Assistant features kept breaking without fixes. Smart home control became an afterthought. Community forums filled with frustrated users.
Voice commands, routines, and cloud automations stop working. Nest speakers and smart displays lose their primary function. Third-party device control through the Google Home app goes away.
The important part: Your actual smart home devices are mostly fine. Philips Hue bulbs, IKEA blinds, Shelly switches, Aqara sensors, Sonoff plugs: these all work independently of Google. You're losing the Google layer that connected them, not the devices themselves. Home Assistant replaces that layer with something more powerful and permanent.
Here's exactly what happens to every common Google Home device when you switch. The short version: most of your stuff works, some works partially, and a few things need replacement.
| Device | Works with HA? | How | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nest Thermostat (any gen) | Full support | Native integration | Full control, scheduling, energy history. Actually better than the Google Home app. |
| Nest Cam (wired/battery) | Partial | Nest integration | Live view and events work. Recording history stays in Google/Nest cloud. Consider Frigate for local recording. |
| Nest Doorbell | Partial | Nest integration | Press detection, live view, motion alerts. Person detection via Frigate locally. No chime on Nest speakers after shutdown. |
| Nest Protect | Full support | Nest integration | Smoke/CO status, battery levels, occupancy sensor. All works perfectly. |
| Nest Hub / Hub Max | Limited | Chromecast integration | Cast media and dashboards to the screen. Voice assistant stops working. Good as a wall display running HA dashboards. |
| Nest Mini / Home / Home Max | Audio only | Chromecast integration | Cast music and TTS announcements. No more voice assistant. Consider ESP32 voice satellites as replacement. |
| Nest Wi-Fi (router) | Works fine | Independent | Your router keeps working. It doesn't depend on Google Assistant. HA can monitor via Google Wi-Fi integration. |
| Device Type | Works with HA? | How | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philips Hue | Full support | Hue Bridge or direct Zigbee | Better control than Google ever offered. Color, scenes, rooms, adaptive lighting. |
| IKEA TRADFRI / DIRIGERA | Full support | Direct Zigbee or DIRIGERA hub | Bulbs, blinds, sensors, remotes. All work perfectly with a Zigbee coordinator. |
| TP-Link Kasa / Tapo | Full support | Native integration (local) | Plugs, switches, bulbs, cameras. Local control, no cloud needed. |
| Shelly devices | Full support | Native integration (local) | Relays, plugs, sensors, dimmers. 100% local out of the box. |
| Tuya / Smart Life | Full support | Cloud, Local Tuya, or flash | Cloud integration works. LocalTuya gives local control. ESPHome flash for full freedom. |
| Sonoff devices | Full support | Zigbee, Tasmota, or eWeLink | Flash to Tasmota/ESPHome for local control, or use Zigbee models directly. |
| Aqara sensors | Full support | Direct Zigbee | Motion, temperature, door/window, water leak. Rock solid with Zigbee coordinator. |
| Chromecast / Google TV | Full support | Cast integration | Play media, control playback, use as dashboard display. Works great. |
| Spotify / YouTube Music | Full support | Media player integration | Control playback, cast to speakers. Spotify Connect works locally. |
| Robot vacuums (Roborock, Dreame) | Full support | Native or HACS integrations | Room cleaning, maps, scheduling. Most brands have excellent HA support. |
Not sure about your specific devices? Our free scan checks every device in your Google Home setup against Home Assistant's 2,800+ integrations and tells you exactly what works, what needs a workaround, and what to replace.
Home Assistant runs on a small computer in your home. Here are three solid options, from budget to best.
Pi 5 (4GB) + case + power supply + NVMe SSD. Huge community. Perfect for getting started. Handles 50+ devices without breaking a sweat.
Pi setup guide →Plug it in, connect Ethernet, open the browser. Done. Made by the Home Assistant team. No technical setup. Includes 32GB eMMC storage.
Green review →Intel N100, 8GB RAM, 256GB NVMe. Enough power for cameras, Frigate AI detection, and 200+ devices. Future-proof choice.
Mini PC guide →If you have IKEA, Aqara, Sonoff Zigbee, or Philips Hue devices (without a Hue Bridge): get a SkyConnect (~€30) or Sonoff ZBDongle-E (~€15). Plugs into USB.
Want voice control without Google? ESP32-S3 boxes (~€12 each) run Assist locally. Place them where you had Nest speakers. Voice guide
You don't need to do everything at once. Here's a realistic two-day plan that gets you from Google Home to a fully working Home Assistant setup.
Flash HAOS to your chosen hardware. Connect Ethernet. Open your browser and complete onboarding. Create your user account. Full install guide
Add the Nest integration. Authorize with your Google account. Your thermostats, cameras, Protects, and doorbells appear automatically. Test control on each device.
Plug in your SkyConnect or ZBDongle. Add ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT. Start pairing your Zigbee devices (IKEA, Aqara, Sonoff). Put each device in pairing mode and it appears in HA. Zigbee guide
Add integrations for Shelly, Kasa/Tapo, Tuya, Hue Bridge, and other Wi-Fi devices. Most are auto-discovered by HA. Just confirm each one. Integrations guide
Install the Home Assistant app on your phone. Control everything from your pocket. Enable location tracking for presence-based automations. Companion app guide
Open Google Home, screenshot your routines. Recreate each one as a Home Assistant automation. See the conversion table below for common translations. Automations guide
Create a simple dashboard with your most-used controls. Lights, thermostat, camera feeds, music. Start with the auto-generated overview and customize from there. Dashboard ideas
Install the Google Drive backup add-on. Schedule automatic daily backups. Your entire config is safe. If anything breaks, restore in minutes. Backup guide
Walk through your home. Trigger each automation. Check each device. Make sure lights respond, thermostat adjusts, cameras show feeds. Fix anything that's off.
Your Google Routines won't survive the shutdown. Here's how to recreate the most common ones in Home Assistant. Every single one of these is more powerful in HA than it was in Google.
| Google Routine | HA Automation | What's Better in HA |
|---|---|---|
| "Good morning" (lights on, news, weather) | Time trigger + light actions + TTS weather | Trigger on alarm time, sun position, or motion. Different schedules for weekdays vs weekends. Skip if nobody's home. |
| "Good night" (all lights off, lock doors) | Button press or voice command trigger | Also arm security, close blinds, set thermostat night mode, check if windows are open, send a summary notification. |
| "I'm home" (lights on, thermostat adjust) | Presence detection trigger | Triggers automatically when your phone enters a GPS zone. No voice command needed. Can unlock door, disarm alarm, start music. |
| "I'm leaving" (lights off, thermostat down) | Zone leave trigger | Triggers when the last person leaves. Checks all family members. Locks doors, arms alarm, pauses media, sends "house secured" notification. |
| Scheduled lights (on at sunset) | Sun trigger with offset | Actual sun position (not fixed time). Gradual dimming. Different brightness in summer vs winter. Room-specific schedules. |
| "Play music in kitchen" | Media player script or voice command | Cast to any speaker. Multi-room sync. Resume last playing. Volume based on time of day. |
| Thermostat schedule | Time + presence + climate automation | Combine schedules with presence. Lower heat when away. Boost before you arrive. Track energy use. Room-by-room TRV control. |
| Motion-activated lights | Motion sensor trigger | Brightness based on time of day. Color temperature shifts. Auto-off after configurable timeout. No activation during daytime if lux sensor is bright enough. |
automation:
- alias: "Good Night Routine"
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: input_boolean.good_night
to: "on"
action:
- service: light.turn_off
target:
entity_id: all
- service: lock.lock
target:
entity_id: lock.front_door
- service: cover.close_cover
target:
entity_id: group.all_blinds
- service: climate.set_temperature
target:
entity_id: climate.living_room
data:
temperature: 17
- service: alarm_control_panel.alarm_arm_night
target:
entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home
- condition: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.living_room_window
state: "on"
- service: notify.mobile_app
data:
message: "Living room window is still open!"This does more in one automation than Google Routines could do with five. And it warns you if a window is open before arming the alarm.
Losing voice control is the biggest concern for most Google Home users. Good news: Home Assistant has its own voice assistant called Assist, and it runs completely on your local network. No cloud, no subscription, no company can shut it down.
Small boxes (~€12 each) that sit where your Nest speakers were. Always listening for a wake word ("Hey Jarvis" or whatever you pick). Process speech locally using Whisper and Piper. Response in under 2 seconds.
The Home Assistant companion app has a built-in Assist button. Tap it and speak. Works from anywhere if you set up remote access. Also integrates with Siri Shortcuts on iOS.
Cast a Home Assistant dashboard to your Nest Hub display. It becomes a touchscreen control panel for your home. Add a cheap USB mic for voice input. Not perfect, but extends the hardware's life.
| Feature | Google Assistant | Home Assistant Assist |
|---|---|---|
| Smart home control | Good | Great (controls everything HA can) |
| General questions | Excellent | Limited (it's not a search engine) |
| Timers and alarms | Great | Basic (improving) |
| Music playback | Great | Basic voice commands, use app for playlists |
| Privacy | All data goes to Google | 100% local, nothing leaves your network |
| Custom commands | Very limited | Unlimited (any automation can be voice triggered) |
| Availability | Shutting down March 2026 | Open source, runs forever |
You might be thinking: "Why not just switch to Alexa or Apple Home?" Fair question. Here's why migrating to another cloud platform is risky.
Home Assistant is open source with over 3,000 contributors. No CEO can decide to sunset it. No acquisition will kill it. You're not at the mercy of any company's roadmap ever again.
Everything runs on a box in your home. Internet goes down? Lights still work. Automations keep running. Thermostat stays comfortable. Google Home goes dark without internet. HA doesn't.
More device support than Google, Alexa, and Apple combined. If a smart device exists, Home Assistant probably works with it. And new integrations ship monthly.
No subscription. No premium tier. The full platform is free. Optional Nabu Casa subscription (€6.50/mo) adds easy remote access and supports development, but it's not required.
Advice from people who've already made the switch.
Don't rip out Google Home on day one. Set up Home Assistant alongside it. Test everything. When HA controls all your devices reliably, stop using the Google Home app. This avoids any "dark house" moments.
Before Google shuts things down, open the Google Home app and screenshot every routine. Note the trigger, conditions, and actions. You'll need this reference when rebuilding them in HA.
If you have a mix of protocols, start by connecting Zigbee devices first. They're the most reliable and fastest to set up. Once your Zigbee mesh is working, add Wi-Fi and cloud devices.
Use a naming convention from the start: "Living Room Light", "Kitchen Motion Sensor", "Bedroom Thermostat". This makes automations readable and voice commands intuitive. Much easier to fix now than after 50 devices.
Install the Google Drive backup add-on right after initial setup. Automatic daily backups mean you can experiment freely. Break something? Restore in 5 minutes. Backup guide
Install the companion app on everyone's phone. Make the dashboard simple. Put physical buttons (like IKEA SOMRIG) next to light switches for people who don't want to use an app. The system needs to be usable for everyone, not just the tech person.
Home Assistant can do things Google never could. Presence-based automations, energy monitoring, local camera AI, cross-device logic. Once you're set up, explore what's possible. Most people end up with a smarter home than they ever had with Google.
Migration isn't just about survival. Here's what most people discover after moving to Home Assistant.
No more "OK, turning on the lights" with a 2-second delay. Local processing means lights respond in milliseconds. It feels like magic after years of cloud lag.
Google Routines were limited to simple if-then triggers. HA automations can chain conditions, use templates, react to multiple sensors, and do things you never imagined. See 30 examples
Built-in energy dashboard shows real-time power consumption, solar production, gas usage, and water. Track costs, find energy vampires, optimize your bills. Energy guide
Local AI object detection with Frigate. Person, car, pet, and package detection without a cloud subscription. 24/7 recording on your own hardware. Zero monthly fees. Frigate guide
The shutdown deadline is weeks away. Run a free scan now to see exactly which of your Google Home devices can migrate to Home Assistant and get a personalized step-by-step migration plan.
Free scan takes 2 minutes. Full migration reports from €19.
Google Assistant is being sunset in March 2026, which means voice commands, routines, and cloud automations stop working on Google Home and Nest speakers. However, many third-party devices you connected through Google Home (like Philips Hue, IKEA, or Shelly) work independently and can connect directly to Home Assistant. Nest hardware like thermostats and cameras will also continue working through HA integrations.
Most people complete the core migration in a single weekend. Saturday for hardware setup and device connection, Sunday for automations and dashboards. Complex setups with many routines, cameras, and voice control replacement might take a few extra evenings. HomeShift's migration report gives you exact steps for your specific devices, saving hours of research.
Partially. After Google Assistant shuts down, Nest speakers lose voice assistant features. You can still cast audio to them from Home Assistant using the Chromecast integration. For voice control, add ESP32-based satellites running Assist with Whisper and Piper for fully local processing. These cost around €12 each.
No. Most smart home devices connected through Google Home also work with Home Assistant. Zigbee devices, Wi-Fi devices (Shelly, Kasa, Tuya), Z-Wave, and Matter devices all connect directly. The only things you might replace are Google-exclusive products like Nest speakers that lose their primary function without Google Assistant.
Installing Home Assistant OS takes about 15 minutes. Adding devices is mostly click-and-connect for popular brands. The learning curve comes with automations and advanced features, but you start simple and grow over time. Thousands of people with zero technical background use it daily. The install guide walks you through every step.
A Raspberry Pi 5 (~€80), Home Assistant Green (€99), or mini PC (~€120). Plus a Zigbee coordinator (~€15-30) if you have Zigbee devices. Total startup: €80-150. Check our starter kit guide for specific recommendations.
Yes. Home Assistant Assist runs completely locally using Whisper (speech-to-text) and Piper (text-to-speech). It handles smart home commands well. For general questions it's more limited than Google was, but for controlling your home it works great and keeps improving. Voice control guide
Google Routines will stop working with the shutdown. Recreate them as Home Assistant automations, which are far more powerful. Most simple routines take 2 minutes to rebuild. Check the routine conversion table above for translations.