What you need to know
- Google Home is preparing a few updates for easier smart home control and monitoring.
- A few updates have already been spotted, including the new device control UI and the new privacy settings.
- Google is also preparing an update to the home feed to better understand what's happening in your home.
Google has been giving its smart home app a lot of attention lately, and the company has recently discussed some of the changes that have arrived or are coming to the Google Home app. We've already seen some of these changes while we're still waiting on others.
The newest update from the blog post comes in the form of Google Home's redesigned activity feed to make it easier to understand the various events happening in your home. Events will be sorted and grouped based on recent and most important events in a layout Google describes as "clutter free." The layout should also help to avoid "scrolling through a list of repetitive events."
The new layout will be available "later this month," meaning users should start seeing the redesign relatively soon.
Google also discussed the new device control UI. This change was spotted last week and will replace the device icons with uniform toggles that you can interact with. Google harkens the design to the power menu that launched with Android 11 and says it should "help you quickly find and understand the status of the devices in your home so you can dim your compatible lights or change the music volume in a snap."
The UI will arrive on iOS and the best Android phones in the coming weeks, although we've managed to activate it on our Galaxy S22.
Lastly, Google highlights the new "centralized" privacy settings that began rolling out this week, giving users more control and understanding over their activity data. Users should already start gaining access to this feature.
