Google Home app redesigns Activity tab with easier filters access

Abner Li | Jul 8 2024 - 8:51 am PT

After introducing a homescreen widget, Google Home for Android is rolling out an Activity tab redesign that makes sorting device events easier.

The previous Activity tab made use of a “Filter” button that opened a fullscreen UI that loaded a long scrollable list. Google now immediately shows three filter chips at the top of the feed that opens dedicated sections.

In the actual feed, Google Home has updated the design of cards, with a thin outline no longer used and a solid background leveraged instead to elevate it against the background.

Old vs. new

Devices shows a list of your Cameras, Speakers and displays Wi-fi, etc. The Material 3 device cards change shape upon selection, while you can collapse each category instead of scrolling. There are large buttons for “Select all” and “Clear all” at the top.

Events uses a similar list layout for Seen events, Heard events, Linked services, and Other. This replaces a touch-friendly grid with large icons.

Finally, you have Date that brings up a standard month calendar picker. The dedicated button here is nice as it was previously located at the very bottom of that long list.

We’re seeing this Activity tab redesign with Google Home 3.19 on Android. The devices we checked are on the Preview Program, while it’s not on iOS as of today.

Looking ahead, Google Home plans to use generative AI to summarize device events into a “streamlined view of what happened recently. In addition to bullet points, a conversational search feature will let you “Ask about your home” to quickly find video history clips. This was announced last October and is expected to launch in 2024.