The Google Home app picked up a major revamp last year, and now that redesign is rolling out to the general public as it brings further updates for Wear OS and tablets.
The new Google Home app is a complete redesign from the previous experience, with a new tabbed interface that splits the app into “Favorites,” a long list of devices, “Automations,” as well as tabs for an activity feed and settings. As we showcased late last year when the preview first went live, it’s a massive improvement overall.
That design has been available to many in an invite-only preview for a few months now. Google says that over 500,000 people signed up to test it out. Now, it’s going live for everyone.
The new Google Home app starts rolling out globally tomorrow, May 11, and will be made available to all users “over the upcoming weeks.”
This public release also comes with some of the latest improvements Google has made to the app, such as the new “Inbox” for notifications, the ability to reorder items on the favorites tab, better performance for Nest cameras, and also expanded device controls for over 60 different device types. We’ve documented many of those new controls, including garage doors, climate devices, appliances, and more. Google says this will be especially useful for Matter devices, which can pair with the Home app without any additional apps required.
Beyond that, the new Google Home app redesign is also getting an updated look on tablets, with better support for landscape and portrait orientations on larger screens. This redesign will go public in June only for Android tablets for now.
Finally, Google is also launching a major update for the Home app on Wear OS. Starting on May 15, the update will bring a customizable “Favorites” section to the smartwatch app to help users get to their most important devices at launch. This comes after a previous update enabled camera previews for Nest Cam notifications on Wear OS 3.
Also announced at Google I/O today was the integration of legacy Nest Cams with the Google Home app, bringing those products over from the aging Nest app starting in July. Google also announced a new “Home Panel” feature for Pixel devices, set to debut on the Pixel Tablet.
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