The Google Home App Is Getting a Major Revamp to Give Users a More Customizable Experience

Now is the week that Google has chosen to flood us with updates. The business has revealed a slew of changes to its smart home ecosystem only days before another major event where it will announce the Pixel 7 smartphone and Pixel Watch for Android customers.

The Google Home app is receiving a much-needed facelift, with streamlined navigation and the ability to save favorite smart home devices for quick access. Support for Matter, the cross-platform solution we’ve been waiting for to unify our smart homes, will also be included.

You can add two more Google smart home gadgets to your arsenal as of right this minute: the updated wired Nest Doorbell and the Nest Wifi Pro, which is compatible with the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard.

Two New Nest Devices

Let’s get these shiny new gadgets out of the way first. Following last year’s announcement, Google has introduced the wired Nest Doorbell. In 2018, Nest released Hello, the first wired doorbell from the firm. For those who wanted a Nest Doorbell but were dissatisfied with the 24-hour recording time that the battery-operated version offered last year, this is an option.

The second-generation Nest Doorbell requires hardwiring in order to function. To save space during an upgrade, the new Nest Hello can be placed just over the old one. It has twice the storage space of its forerunner, supports HDR video recording, and has increased processing power.

And it has a machine learning chip integrated right in for instantaneous facial recognition. With a Nest Aware subscription, the wired Nest Doorbell will be able to recognize recognized faces through the use of Activity Zones, just like the rest of the Nest security camera family.

The Nest Aware service costs $6 per month for access to 30 days of video history, while the Nest Aware Plus service costs $12 per month in order to use the wired doorbell’s 24/7 video recording capabilities. Even with Nest Aware’s paid upgrades, you can only store three hours of events and five minutes of video at a time.

Ideally, we’ll be able to compare the wired Nest Doorbell to the previous year’s model and the original Nest Hello. Costing $180, the item can be purchased in the United States and Canada. It is available in four different shades: snow, ash, linen, and ivy (a greenish-black).

Google has also made the Nest Wifi Pro official, confirming rumors that had been circulating about it. And while this is the third-generation Nest Wifi product, it’s the first time Google has offered a wifi router that operates on the faster 6GHz band.

The maximum speed of the Nest WiFi Pro, when used in conjunction with Wi-Fi 6E, is 5.4 Gpbs. Each router node has two 1GB ports for wired connections to other parts of your network and devices.

Priced at $300 for a two-pack, they have a coverage area of up to 4,400 square feet, and for $400 for three packs, they can cover an area of 6,600 square feet in size. If more processing power is required, you can purchase extra nodes for $200 each.

Machine learning is used by the Nest Wifi Pro, like in earlier models, to prioritize “essential activities” like video streaming and video chatting. In addition to utilizing the router’s web-based setup wizard, you can use the Google Home app on your smartphone to change the router’s settings, such as enabling parental controls or temporarily disabling WiFi for a troublemaker in the house.

So that you don’t feel like you have to bury the Nest Wifi Pro in some dark recess of your space, it is available in four different colors. We can see a greenish undertone in the Lemongrass color that resembles the rumored advertising colors of the forthcoming Pixel 7 smartphone. The other colors are Fog, Linen, Snow, and Lemongrass.

The router is available for pre-order now, but it won’t really be released until October 27.

Matter on The Horizon

The next smart home standard, Matter, which aims to integrate the existing fragmented, diverse connected ecosystems, is scheduled to go online this winter. Google has stated that its Nest WiFi Pro can function as a Thread border router.

One of Matter’s foundational technologies is called Thread, and a Nest WiFi Pro can be used as a central hub for your smart home. The Nest Hub Max, Nest Hub 2, and the previous generation of Nest Wifi all have Thread preinstalled and can be used as Matter controllers.

To further streamline the process of connecting Matter-enabled devices to the internet, Google will use the Google Home app’s Fast Pair connectivity features. Smartphones running Android already have Fast Pair pre-installed.

This feature can essentially scan your network for unconnected devices and walk you through adding them. Any device running Android 8 or later will be able to use Fast Pair, as it has been incorporated into Google Play services as an update. Fast Pair is a Bluetooth LE-based feature.

Also Read: Google Launches a Pair of New Nest Products That Work With Matter

Google Home Gets a Makeover

In the upcoming weeks and months, the Google Home app for Android and iOS will be completely redesigned. The company guarantees greater personalization and fewer taps to obtain what you want. Google’s goal is to make the Home app “the single best spot for you to set up.”

The Google Home app is getting a new Favorites section that prioritizes the smart home features you use most often. By adding Nest security cameras to Favorites, you can easily access their live feeds with a single tap. Users of the Nest security camera will attest that you have to do a lot of fumbling around with your fingers before you can see what’s going on.

The new Google Home app also allows you to control your smart home through “spaces.” Lighting, security, and other networked gadgets can all be neatly organized into their own spaces.

The point is to free your mind from the confines of these devices. Create a “space” for the area of an open room where your kids play, and assign only the smart home gadgets that control the lights to that area. The goal is to provide finer-grained control over certain smart home scenarios without needing too many taps in the Home app.

Early next year, Google plans to provide a script editor within the Home app for advanced users of home automation. A first for Google, this will give the Home app a little more functionality than it has before.

Also Read: Google’s Home Upgrades Go Further Than New Hardware

Up until now, you needed a third-party app like Samsung SmartThings or Homey to do any serious tweaking with your Google-led smart home. Household Routines is a new feature coming to the Google Home app that will leverage your smart home’s current setup to recommend initial automation steps.

Finally, Google has updated the Google Home app, albeit it will be some time before we can judge how much better organized or functional it is now.

Just like you can try out Android before it’s released to the general public, the new software will include a “Public Preview” version that you can try out. If you’re keen on participating, don’t forget to submit a request for access to the program.

At long last, Google is re-introducing web-based home controls. To see Nest security footage on home.google.com, a new “camera experience” will be made available in the coming weeks.

Also Read: Sony to Soon Launch New PS5 Models in India

To find out what’s making your cameras go crazy, you won’t need to pull out your phone or provide any commands to a screen. It’s great that the next generation of linked Google gadgets can now be managed through the browser, just like older Nest devices.