Google Home app redesigns ‘Home settings’ with Material Theme, better organization

Abner Li | May 12 2020 - 7:20 am PT

The Google Home app is, well, home to a sprawling number of settings and menus for controlling Smart Displays, speakers, Wi-Fi routers, and much more. Google is now redesigning the “Home settings” menu with better organization and the Material Theme.

Accessible from the top two rows of shortcuts, “Home settings” starts with “General” where
nickname and address are consolidated under “Home information,” while the list of “Home members” is now called “Household.”

The first major change sees your list of rooms, groups, and devices becoming a full “Room and devices” menu — instead of being further down below in the page.

“Features” links to “Notifications” and “Digital Wellbeing” — as well as Nest Wifi and the new Nest Aware — while the “Services” menu has been tweaked and particularly benefits from the addition of Material Theme icons for each line item. This includes: Video, Music, Radio, Live TV — which went live in the last Home update, Voice and video calls, Shopping list, and a new “Works with Google.” All these items link to existing Assistant settings found in the Google app’s preferences.

Finally, there is a “Delete this home” shortcut at the bottom. Overall, this is a better organized list that’s more glanceable and better prioritized for what people need to access.

Google is rolling out the redesigned Home settings page with version 2.22.1.11. It’s not yet widely rolled out on the Play Store, but available now through APK Mirror.