Google does end of April with fairly large Home app and Gemini voice assistant updates for Home.
Google Home app
Starting with the Google Home app, the “Updated Camera Experience” is rolling out. This modernization adds a dynamic theme, while “key features (easier to access and discover)” are especially at the bottom of the screen.
Old and new
For Google Home Premium Advanced plan subscribers, your timeline now includes artificial intelligence illustrations, making it easy and fun to navigate through your history and identify interesting moments.
On that AI front:
- Clearer event descriptions: We’ve improved the camera’s AI images to remove unnecessary clutter, making them clearer and easier to read at a glance.
- Faster search: Finding what you’re looking for is now faster, with camera search results loading noticeably faster in the Ask Home section.
- Simplified Camera Settings: Now it’s easier to find your camera settings. We’ve upgraded useful features like Twins for Home, familiar face detection, and Activity Zones. Configuring and updating Activity Zones is now faster. Events seen and heard are now combined on one page, simplifying event logging and notification configuration.
Likewise, a new media management experience when using the Google Home App to stream music and videos to your Google smart speakers, smart displays, Google TV Streamer and other streaming devices now available to all users” (emphasis ours).Google may be referring to last year’s Material 3 redesign when you open the media device management page.
Putting the beautiful album artwork of your favorite artists front and center and giving you better access to playback controls and device management.
Controller pages will now show “instant prompts to relink account” when an expired partner link is behind offline devices. Finally, feedback reports now include more detailed diagnostic information to help Google “fix issues faster.”
Google Home Premium users will now benefit from account retention, where subscriptions will be suspended instead of suspended in case of payment issues to ensure you don’t lose your video history, familiar faces or AI event descriptions.
Gemini for home voice assistant
Today’s Gemini voice assistant updates for Home offer “Faster Smart Home Control”. Controlling lights and traffic lights can be up to 1.5 seconds faster. Google credits this “significant speed increase” with how it “optimizes device commands and home layouts.”
Next, there’s “more efficient processing for near-instant execution” of alarm, timer, and reminder commands, “even if you enter specific times or names.” Google says to try:
- “Turn on the kitchen lights.”
- “Set a timer for 10 minutes.”
- “Cancel my pizza timer.”
These speed improvements are live for English, French and Spanish users in supported countries. Support for more languages is “coming soon”.
The Gemini Assistant for Home is now better at “determining when a request is a stand-alone command against harassment.”
Depending on the context, Gemini can determine when to ignore inappropriate speech, which is useful for users who have Enabled Continuous Chat.
Custom Routines are now better at working “without interference from other smart home commands.”
- “Hey Google, I’m home.” (triggers your “I’m home” routine)
- “Hey Google, set a timer for 10 minutes… and turn off the fan.”
- “Hey Google, what’s the weather like?” → “How are you in Seattle?”
FTC: We use automatic affiliate links that generate income. More.
