Even though this is one of the less significant announcements from Google I/O, Google Home will soon receive a significant update that will significantly improve its usability and usefulness.
Google director Anish Kattukaran says, "Last year we shared ways we're making it easier to manage and customize your smart home." To assist you in keeping a closer check on your most critical priorities, Google is now announcing new capabilities that will soon be available for Google Home on your phone, tablet, and smartwatch.
It's noteworthy that they use the phrase "last year" because in October 2022, Google announced that it will support Matter, a smart home standard, across Android and Nest. They also talked about a public preview of a new Google Home app design, which is only now beginning to be implemented. As opposed to the present Home and History tabs, the new Home app has five major navigation tabs: Favorites, Devices, Automations, Activity, and Settings. In addition, it makes use of more color to brighten up the currently depressing interface.
The new app will launch in the Favorites view, where you can organize, pin, and update the actions, automations, and devices you use the most. You can also explore your Spaces, where devices are automatically categorized into groups like lighting, cameras, Wi-Fi, and climate. Naturally, the Matter devices are compatible with the Android app—Google just introduced support for 60 additional device controllers—and Matter support is also coming to Google Home on iOS 16.5 and higher.
On Android, the redesigned Google Home app is now available to all users as of today, May 11. However, a new version of the app that adds rooms, favorites, and animated camera notifications will be available on WearOS starting on May 15. Additionally, a version of the Home app for Android tablets with landscape and portrait layouts, camera timeline navigation, and an event list will be available in June.