If you're a frequent Google Assistant user, you would be aware of all the different things you can do apart from just asking the assistant basic questions. One of these functions is custom routines. Routines allow you to set fixed instructions to trigger a particular event when certain conditions are met. While the ability to add routines has existed for a while, Google has now added that ability to delay a routine. You can pick a custom time to delay the start of your routine, which can be helpful in many scenarios.

The feature was first spotted by Reddit user u/Droppedthe_ball, but it isn't widely available at the moment. As 9to5Google reports, it seems like the feature is still being tested, and it might roll out to more users soon. To check if you have this feature enabled, all you have to do is launch the Google Home app on your smartphone and tap the Routines icon. Here, tap on the plus icon at the bottom right corner of the screen to create a new routine.

Now, set a voice command or a time that you want to use to trigger the routine. Once you do that, tap on Add action to set the action you want to trigger, and in this screen, you should see a Delay Start option under the Time Adjustments section. As of now, we don't have the update on our device, and hence, the Time Adjustments section isn't available. However, you can see from the screenshot what the menu looks like once you have the option unlocked.

Google Assistant delay routines

Delaying a routine might be useful in multiple scenarios. Let's say you want your alarm to go off 20 minutes post sunrise. Currently, you can't do this since the time of sunrise changes every day. Now, you can set the alarm to be triggered at sunrise every day and set a delay of 20 minutes to the routine so that your alarm will go off 20 minutes after sunrise. Similarly, if you want your AC to turn off 10 minutes after you've given the command, you can set a delay, and the routine will follow.

The ability to delay routines was spotted on the latest version of the Google Home app (Version 2.42.1.14) and is currently applicable only for custom routines. This may change once the rollout starts for all Google Assistant users.