Google Home routines keep saying that the Nest x Yale lock has ‘been unlocked’

Ben Schoon | Dec 13 2022 - 10:09 am PT

If you have a Nest x Yale lock in your home, you might have noticed something different about Google Home routines and Assistant interacting with the lock.

Over the past couple of months, the Google Home app has been undergoing some major changes. A completely revamped version of the app is currently in testing, and Google has been making other tweaks too. Just in the past few weeks, we’ve seen some changes to how routines are handled, including new “Household” routines and device/sensor triggers.

Another minor change that’s now being observed is a tweak to how the Google Home app, including routines and Google Assistant commands, handles the Nest x Yale lock.

Some users have reported – and we’ve observed similar behavior – that locking a Nest x Yale lock with a Google Home routine has changed in recent weeks. Specifically, the routine now announces that a door “was unlocked” if it was already unlocked at the time the command was sent to lock the door. Previously, this announcement said that it was “locking the door.” We’ve also heard the more troubling phrasing that the lock “has been unlocked,” which more directly claims the door has been unlocked in direct opposition to the request.

It’s a minor change, but one that’s actually a little confusing. Google Assistant (and, in turn, Google Home routines) can’t unlock a Nest x Yale lock, so the phrasing that the door “was unlocked” could lead to a misunderstanding, despite it technically making sense.

Google may end up changing this later on, but in any case, it’s important to remember that functionality hasn’t changed. This is simply a mistake with the phrasing.