Google Home

Last year, Google refreshed the Nest camera lineup for the first time in several years, but it also came with a change on the software side of things. The Google Home app is supposed to replace the Nest app, but the transition period has been a maddening limbo. Nearly a year later, virtually nothing has changed on that front either.

Google appears to be working on a new device that — at the very least — has the functionality of the classic “Chromecast Audio,” which helped make normal speakers “smarter.”

Announced in March as part of a flurry of updates, the Google Home app has now widely rolled out the new events Feed tab.

Back in January, Google had to make changes to Speaker Groups because of the US ITC ruling in favor of Sonos. Another “interruption caused by Sonos” is now responsible for some Pixel phones in the United States and Canada being unable to to set-up Google Home devices.

Google neglected Wear OS for years, but it seems the company is finally ready to take things seriously. Alongside the reveal of the Pixel Watch earlier today, the company also confirmed that, finally, Wear OS is getting a Google Home app.

We’ve been hearing about the Matter smart home standard and what it could do for ages now, and things are on track to finally arrive later this year. In an interview ahead of this week’s Google I/O, the company has teased what Matter will mean for the Google Home app going forward.

There are tons of music streaming services out there, and Apple Music is one of the more popular ones for offering lossless playback at a reasonable price. So how do you listen to your music from Apple Music on Google Home devices? Well, it’s quite easy. This guide will take you through it step by step.

Following the ability to set seconds-long delayed starts, Google has made another tweak to Assistant Routines that lets you rename these macros to be different from their starters.

Google Home is at the forefront of smart home automation. That being the case, we expect heavy customization and the ability to change minute details depending on how we like our homes to run. One of those fine details is being able to delay certain actions in Google Home’s Assistant Routines.

The Google Home app is getting a rather sizable redesign of the device grid that makes it faster to control smart gadgets right from the main tab. This is more or less similar to the Device controls page on Android 11+.

At the end of last year, Google thoroughly redesigned and simplified the process of creating Assistant Routines. That update introduced sunrise/sunset triggers, and Google will soon let you program a delay between when the command is given and the Assistant Routine starts. 

Google recently updated the default “Shopping List” experience used by Assistant and Home devices. For many users, it’s a huge visual and functional regression that has taken away useful capabilities.

After updating the primary tab with interactive device toggles inspired by Android 11, the Google Home app wants to redesign the “Feed” to be more useful.

Following Android, Google Home for iOS is now starting to roll out the ability to remote control your Chromecast with Google TV from your phone. Version 2.48 also makes tweaks to Google Wifi stats and graphs.

People like using their Google Assistant Smart Displays and speakers to play white noise before sleeping. Google earlier this week changed the white noise ambient sound and there has been an onslaught of complaints from Home/Nest users.

Google Assistant speakers and Chromecast-compatible products were hit with some big changes last week, as Google lost a lawsuit from Sonos that required the company to make some changes. Now, the “Device Utility” app Google built to work around those changes is being review-bombed as users express their discontent with the alterations.

Following yesterday’s announcement of changes to Speaker Groups and Assistant device set-up, Google has started to update its devices and applications. The latest version of the Google Home app no longer lets you use a phone’s physical volume button on the Media screen/player. 

Following the US ITC ruling in favor of Sonos, Google this afternoon announced a series of changes to how Speaker Groups and its Assistant devices work.

Just like last year, we’ve put together an end-of-year recap of all the major features that Google Assistant and Google Home launched in 2021.