Google Home app reveals ‘Nest Audio’ speaker brand, work on Home/Away Routines, and more

Google Home 2.28 adds support for OnHub routers and lets you better control notifications. It also reveals “Nest Audio” as the possible name of Made by Google’s next speaker and work on Home/Away Assistant Routines.

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in the case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

Nest Audio

An earlier version of the companion app revealed the existence of “device_ynb” and referred to it as a “Nest Speaker.” That string in Google Home 2.28 has been updated to “Nest Audio.”

Given what has already confirmed about the design following a regulatory agency leak and the September 30th event invite, that’s mostly like the name of Google’s “latest smart speaker.”

Before:

<string name=”device_ynb_name”>Nest Speaker</string>

After:

<string name=”device_ynb_name”>Nest Audio</string>

/Away Routines

As promised in July, Google is bringing the Nest ecosystem’s Home & Away feature to Assistant as “presence detection.” This allows you to create a “Home Routine” and “Away Routine” to automatically adjust the temperature or turn on/off lights when you arrive or leave .

<string name=”haw_phone_location_subtitle”>”%1$sYour phone will tell Google when it comes home and when it leaves. This helps automate your devices and personalize your home experience, like turning off lights when you leave. It also helps improve Nest services.\n\nYou control whether Nest can use your phone’s location, and you can turn this off in the Home app’s settings. Nest will keep a recent history of every time your phone comes home or leaves. Go to your home’s history to review it or to settings to delete your data.\n\nTo use this feature, you’ll need to allow the Home app to have always-on access to your phone’s location.\n\nDon’t use this feature if your home won’t use it to automate devices.”</string>

This “Home occupancy” feature leverages the location of your phone. Users must grant the necessary permission, while others can be invited to have their device used to determine if anybody is home. 

<string name=”haw_onboarding_home_routine_name”>Home Routine</string>

<string name=”haw_onboarding_away_routine_name”>Away Routine</string>

It looks like users can also manually invoke Home / Away from the Google Home app with the push of a button without using location.

<string name=”haw_phone_location_not_set_up_properly_subtitle”>”To allow the app to automatically switch between Home and Away without opening the app, you’ll need to change your settings.”</string>

Porting Nest features

The Google Home app also continues work on bringing over existing Nest features, including “user roles” with “access levels.” This could lead to Nest Secure users no longer needing the Nest app to manage the alarm system.

<string name=”user_roles_access_summary_fragment_title”>Access summary</string>

<string name=”user_roles_access_summary_fragment_description”>This person will have access to the selected devices during the following schedule. Carefully review and edit before inviting</string>