Google admits that its Google Home app for managing smart home devices has not offered the best user experience, and it now aims to change that. Alongside new Nest devices and an upcoming Google Home smart speaker, the company unveiled a redesigned version of the Google Home app. This update promises better performance, centralized device management, and the integration of its AI assistant, Gemini.
While AI is a headline feature, Google claims the app itself has received a complete overhaul in design, performance, and reliability. Anish Kattukaran, Chief Product Officer at Google Home and Nest, stated directly that the app has not been the experience they wanted it to be. He explained that before adding new AI features, the company had to solve the app’s fundamental problems, with performance being the top priority.
Google reports major performance improvements over the past several months, resulting in a 70 percent faster startup, 80 percent fewer crashes, and better battery and memory usage. Over the past year, the company has shipped over 100 performance updates and app features. The app now works across over 800 million devices from more than 50,000 manufacturers.
The company is also working to make the Google Home app the only app needed for Nest users to manage their devices. This move comes more than a decade after Google’s acquisition of Nest. While the Nest app is not going away immediately, Nest device owners should prepare for that eventual future.
The app now fully supports Nest thermostats from 2015 onward, including their schedules and energy history. It also supports Nest cameras, doorbells, Nest Protect’s emergency notifications, and passcode management for Nest x Yale Locks. Camera features have been improved with a better scrubbing experience for video, faster and smoother camera feeds, and richer animated previews on notifications. Google states that camera live views now load 30 percent faster and playback failures have decreased by 40 percent.
The updated Google Home app features a simplified design with just three tabs: Home, Activity, and Automation. It also supports new gestures, allowing users to swipe on the Home tab to move between devices or dashboards. In the camera view, you can swipe down to see the full view, up to exit, or left and right to toggle between timeline and events views. The video player allows double-tapping to rewind or fast-forward.
Event notifications on iOS and Android now expand to show rich, animated previews, making it easier to see what is happening directly from your lock screen. AI can summarize activity in alerts and camera history, so you see what actually took place instead of just a generic motion alert.
The Activity tab showcases the history for your entire home, including non-Google devices. A new AI-powered feature called Home Brief uses Gemini to summarize the day’s events, saving you from reading through individual alerts. To find specific events, you can use filters or a new feature called Ask Home, which allows you to interact with Gemini through the app.
This search and help feature is accessible from the header navigation and will suggest related devices as you type. You can use Gemini to ask questions about your home in natural language, control multiple devices at once, create automations by describing them, or ask for specific camera clips. When viewing camera events, the AI can describe the activity seen and explain what caused the motion.
Some advanced AI features require a Google Home Premium subscription, which starts at ten dollars per month. Access is included with Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions at no extra charge. These premium features include using Gemini to create automations, the Home Brief, and Ask Home.
On the Automation tab, users will see their list of automations and a new carousel showing what will happen in the home over the next few hours. This tab is now natively built into iOS and Android for better performance, and the Automations editor has been redesigned to allow for one-time and conditional automations.
Gemini also provides insights about your home, such as energy use details. You can ask questions like how long the air conditioner ran last week or how much the TV was used over the weekend.
The Google Home version 4.0 app update will start rolling out to global users on October 1 and will continue over the following days. To get the update first, open the Google Home app, click your profile icon, tap on Home Settings, scroll down, and select Early Access to join the test.