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The Google Home app is preparing a search bar and Material You theme support

The Google Home app is preparing two very overdue additions in the form of a search bar for your devices as well as Material You theme support.

Google completely revamped the Home app back in 2022 with the goal of making it better for every smart home, regardless of size. And for the most part, it’s been mission accomplished, but one glaring omission was a search option to quickly find devices.

It appears that’s finally on the way.

In the latest update to the Google Home app, v3.23.1.3, the folks over at Android Authority were able to find and enable a new search bar that appears on the “Devices” tab. This would allow for quick searching of devices in your smart home, a task that can currently include a whole lot of scrolling if you have a lot of devices in your home.

This simple bit of functionality isn’t live just yet, but seems like something that should have been in the revamped app in the first place.

Beyond that, the same version also lays the groundwork for support for Material You color themes. This is something that most Google apps support on Android, and it’s odd that the Home app never has.

It’s unclear when either of these features will roll out to users, but we’re glad to see they’re in the works.

Other recent updates to the Google Home app include a revamped control page for Nest Thermostats, a much-improved Wear OS app, and more.

More on Google Home:

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Avatar for Ben Schoon Ben Schoon

Ben is a Senior Editor for 9to5Google.

Find him on Twitter @NexusBen. Send tips to schoon@9to5g.com or encrypted to benschoon@protonmail.com.


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