Here’s How Google updates its Home app in preparation for Matter

Google is previewing a completely new Home app for controlling its smart home devices and the many other gadgets it expects people to add to their homes once the new smart home standard Matter becomes available. The new app will be available as a public preview in a few weeks, and you can sign up to try it out right away. Anish Kattukaran of Google Nest described the new Home app as "the single best place to set up, control, and automate Nest devices and every Matter device," adding a new Favorites page and support for sensors to trigger automation, as well as bringing over the camera interface from the Nest app.

The new Google Home app is now available on Wear OS

Later this year, Google Home will also be available on the web, allowing you to view Nest camera and doorbell feeds from a web browser at home.google.com. You'll also be able to control your home from your wrist. The Home app will be available on Wear OS this week, first on the new Google Pixel Watch and then on Wear OS 3. You can use the app to turn off lights, adjust your Nest Thermostat, and receive notifications from your Nest cameras on your wrist.

Google is very concerned with the subject

Google is completely committed to Matter, a new smart home connectivity standard that aims to address many industry pain points such as complicated setup, perplexing integrations, and poor reliability. Google Nest's Kevin Po confirmed to The Verge in a briefing that the Google Nest Hub Max, Nest Hub (2nd gen), and all of Google's Nest Wifi routers (including the newly announced Nest Wifi Pro) will be Matter controllers for Google Home when the standard launches later this year. This means that those devices can control any Matter device in the home via their interface or the Home app. The Nest devices will also serve as Thread border routers, connecting the Thread mesh network to Wi-Fi. Thread is a Matter protocol that allows devices on your home network to communicate more efficiently. Furthermore, Po confirmed that Fast Pair for Android will be compatible with Matter, allowing Android phones to automatically detect any Matter devices on your network and assist you in setting them up with a few taps, including linking to any compatible Matter controller app on your smartphone. Po demonstrated how to set up a smart plug and how to add it to the Google Home or Eve apps.

The new Google Home app is inspired by the Nest app

The new Google Home app emphasizes customization, with the app's homepage renamed "Favorites." Create a personalized view of the devices, actions, or automation you want to access the most frequently. This includes live feeds from any camera you mark as a favorite, which will be displayed in the tile as soon as you launch the app. Furthermore, any device you add from light bulbs to locks will provide a live status when the app opens, allowing you to quickly see what's going on in your home. Above the Favorites page is a new Spaces feature, similar to the new Shortcuts buttons in the Apple Home app. These will take you to a collection of similar devices, such as lights, cameras, climate control, and Wi-Fi. You could set up a Pet Space to house your pet cam, pet feeder, robot vacuum, and air purifier. According to Kattukaran, Google plans to add the option for custom Spaces, where you can group devices outside of traditional room groups, next year. You could, for example, create a Pet Space for your pet cam, pet feeder, robot vacuum, and air purifier.

A floating mini media player, which gives you quick access to controls for any media playing in your home, including the Google TV remote interface, is also available on the Favorites tab. It also allows you to swipe through to control any other devices in your home that are playing music or video. The Devices tab returns you to the traditional room view, which is still alphabetical but now includes live previews of any cameras in each room. You can control and view the status of any device from here.

When you click on a camera tile, you are taken to a camera controller page with a live view of the camera above a vertical timeline. In this view, you can scroll through any video history in the same way that the Nest app does. This includes small snapshots along the timeline to help you quickly see what is most important. You can view all motion events or filter by activity, such as person or animal. This is a significant improvement over the previous Home app, which required multiple taps to access recorded video. The Home app's public preview will work with all current and discontinued Nest cameras, but will only show video history for cameras manufactured after 2021. According to Kattukaran, Google will fully integrate legacy cameras into the Home app over the next year. "The Nest app was designed for wired cameras, not battery-powered cameras," he explains, explaining why the transition is taking so long.