Google Home app prepares household ‘access’ roles w/ device restrictions

Ben Schoon | Feb 1 2021 - 9:25 am PT

After we first spotted the functionality in development back in September of last year, Google looks to be preparing a rollout of “access” roles for household members in the Google Home app.

Being able to share your Google Home household with other users is handy for families and roommates, ensuring everyone has the ability to interact with smart home devices from their phones and speakers. However, it’s long been a one-size-fits-all approach. That’s soon going to change, though, with the arrival of new “access” roles in the Google Home app.

The folks over at Android Police noticed that the Google Home app for Android is at least rolling out the UI for this change, even though nothing appears to be fully functional at this point. Under the “household” settings, you can see a new “Access summary” page, which lists “access details” and “devices.” Right now, the “details” page is blank but marks everyone as a manager. There’s also a devices list that shows all devices attached to the home, but there are no options for that yet. Google does offer a bit of an explanation on this feature on the page, but presumably, this paragraph may change when settings are swapped around.

Everyone in this home can view all activity and access all devices and settings, including devices that are added later. They can also edit all home settings and add and remove devices, service, and people in this home.

Likely, this is waiting on some more server-side changes on Google’s end before roles are fully functional. In any case, it looks like a useful new option!