Smart home devices have become common. Access to gadgets such as a single smart speaker or a fully connected and automated home is easier and more affordable than ever. There are several solid ways to manage and control these devices. One of the easiest and best ways is through Google Home.
Over the years, Google added new features and functions and improved the app experience. Last fall, Google unleashed a new batch of updates to the app and platform that have been some of my favorites. These four stand out to me and are the ones I use often.
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4 Gemini gets more useful
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Source: Mike Burgess / Android Police
When Google rolled out Gemini to phones and replaced Google Assistant, users lost voice access to smart home controls. This past fall, some of Google Assistant’s ability to control smart home devices was folded into Gemini, which expanded its capabilities to create custom automation.
Using Gemini to create a smart home routine takes the previously launched Help Me Script feature that launched a year ago and levels it up. That system took the coding required to make a complex, custom automation and made it simple and well-automated. This removed the requirement that users understand how to write code and made it simple. Gemini takes it further, allowing me to create an automation conversationally.
For example, with the devices set up in Google Home for my holiday lights, I can ask Gemini to turn on the lights 30 minutes before sunset and then off at 9 p.m. While this isn’t a complex automation to set up within the Google Home app, asking Gemini to do it saves time and taps on my phone. When I let the AI do the legwork, all I have to do is look it over and save it.
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3 Nest on my wrist
Who’s there?
A bit of a niche update, but that has a bigger impact than I thought it would, is seeing who’s at my front door from my wrist. The addition of getting a live view of my favorite video doorbell, Nest Doorbell (wired, 2nd gen), on my Google Pixel Watch 3 is great. I can open the Google Home app from the watch or open a notification when someone is at the door, and I get a video feed on my wrist.
The update also works with Nest cameras. I don’t use this feature often, but it’s fantastic when I don’t have my phone or don’t want to get it out. I can tap the notification to see who is at my door. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that bring me the most joy.
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2 TV action
Going big
Four years after the first Chromecast with Google TV was released, we got a proper hardware update with the Google TV Streamer in September. In addition to bringing improved hardware and nifty new features, we got a nice update to the Google TV platform across the board. This included a Google Home side panel allowing full control over your smart home devices.
Accessing your lights, door locks, cameras, and more with a remote button is great. Much like the ability to view Nest cameras from my wrist, getting a preview of who rang my doorbell without getting up or pulling out my phone is wonderful. This is another one of those quality-of-life updates that won’t be my new default way to control my Google Home, but it adds extra options, and in some cases, like the doorbell, it is the easiest way.
1 Knowing more
While doing less
This next update is for Nest cameras and another that relies on Google’s Gemini. Gemini is worming its way into our Nest cameras in a couple of nifty ways. One is with AI descriptions.
Google’s cameras have always told us that a dog, person, or vehicle has been spotted. But now, the descriptions will be more helpful by giving actual context as to what the thing that was spotted is doing. Instead of telling me that a person has been spotted when my kids are riding their bikes, the notification will say, “Kids riding bikes are spotted in the front yard.”
The other way Gemini helps with Nest cameras is with search history. I like this one because sometimes I miss notifications from my cameras. I had an email that a package was delivered, but I didn’t see it when I got home. Instead of digging through event clips, I asked in search if a delivery truck was at my house. Being able to ask for something without needing to speak in a certain way, just asking Gemini the same way I’d ask a person for something, is great.
It’s getting there, but not yet
Google Assistant and Gemini seem like competing products since both still exist and offer similar but different functions, with some missing entirely from the others. As Gemini improves, it should fix many of the issues I had in the past couple of years with Google’s approach to managing smart home devices. Google Home as an app isn’t all bad. Some functions can be a bit clunky, and there are features I want to add. However, I like the direction Google is heading and look forward to what could be next.