Google announced its redesigned Google Home app in October 2022. The company started rolling it out to a handful of users in a limited public preview program available on all Android devices. During the Google I/O 2023 keynote this year, they announced a redesign with the Google Pixel 7A, Pixel Fold, and Pixel Tablet.
The redesigned Google Home app includes several new features, including a new Home Screen that shows your devices and recent activity, manages your routines, and creates new routines. You can also control your devices and get help and support. The new app has five tabs at the bottom of the screen that show your favorites: devices, automation, activity, and settings. All these tabs are now more streamlined than in the previous app version.
- Favorites: It has a card for smart home devices, actions, automation, media control, and live streams for security cameras. This has always been particularly popular and adds more to a single place for easy access. This new tab will give users quick access to their most-used devices.
- Devices: This tab shows all smart home devices. It lists all your home products, categorized by room, making accessing and controlling your needed devices easier.
- Automation: Create and manage automation. This allows you to perform actions that your device takes automatically. The automation tab will display all your routines and allow you to modify them. For example, you could create an automation that turns on your lights when you come home or turns off your thermostat when you leave.
- Activity: This tab shows your activity history in the Google Home app. It notifies you about your activity history in the Google Home app, such as when a new member joins your home or a new smart home product is detected in the network. This includes turning on a device, changing a setting, or creating a new automation.
- Settings: It allows you to change the settings for the Google Home app.
If you own a Samsung phone or tablet, you can install the latest redesigned Google Home via the Play Store. To update the older version of Google Home and your app to the latest version, navigate to the Play Store, head over to the Profile Icon, tap Manage App & Device, and click the Update All button. Google and Samsung have brought support for Matter Smart Home Standard, which makes it easier to connect and control smart home devices from different manufacturers to their smart home and announced deep integration with each other’s smart home platforms.
How to Reorder and Edit Favourite Devices in the Google Home App
The new Google Home app has a favorites page. Here is a guide that will help you reorder and edit. The new Google Home redesign has five sections: favorites, devices, automation, activity, and settings. This includes favorites, and the Device section holds your lights, camera, and other smart home products.
- Open the Google Home app, then tap on the Favourites tab.
- From there, scroll to the bottom and tap on the Reorder button.
- Now, start dragging and dropping the tiles to reorder them.
- To edit a device, tap on the tile and make your changes.
- Once you’re done, tap the Save button.
This allows you to organize Quick-Access products based on your preferences. The products you use most should appear at the top, and the less frequently used products should be towards the middle and bottom.
How to add and remove devices from Google Home:
- Open the Google Home app, then tap on the Favourites section.
- Scroll down to the bottom and tap Edit. Select the action, automation, or device to add to the Favourites page.
- Then, tap Save.
To reorder the devices, tap the Favourites section in the Google Home app and scroll to the bottom. Then, hit Reorder. Next, drag any tiles around to order them, and hit Save.
- Open Google Home, tap the Favourites section, and scroll to the bottom. Then, tap on Reorder.
- Start dragging any tiles around to order them based on your preference, and then tap on Save.
Last year, the program was open for users to test the update in November. With the support of new devices, including the original Nest Camera and Home Panels for Pixel users that give you one-tap access to your Google Home, it started updating for all users around the globe. Over half a million people have signed up to test the app. As for the Nest team, they say that they have made over 50 improvements to the app.
Apart from the Google Home app, the company also announced Wear OS users. This includes accessing favorites, improved camera notifications with animation previews, and support for the original Nest Camera, which will be supported within the app soon. This is scheduled to be released in July in public preview. Next month, with the new feature drop, Google will introduce an exclusive home panel for the Pixel. Also, note that new Home users will see the app update on iOS and Android this week.