Over the past year, we’ve seen a number of improvements arrive to Google Home, with the most notable being the integration of Gemini, which has provided a huge boost to the overall experience. While the experience was pretty good, many complained about the speed.
There would often be delays between commands and Home taking action, and that’s not something you want to deal with, especially if this is supposed when this is all meant to feel seamless. Luckily, Google Home is now getting a huge boost, providing an experience that’s now faster and smarter.
Rolling out now
Perhaps the most important change that’s rolling out is that Google Home is getting faster. In fact, Google shares that most users should experience a boost of up to 1.5 seconds when controlling light or plugs, which is huge.
The brand was able to accomplish this by “optimizing how we process device commands and home layouts.” In addition to the above, basic commands will now be more responsive. So, going forward, you should expect a better response when trying to set alarms, timers, and reminders.
This is available in supported countries, with language support in English, French, and Spanish. Google shares that more languages will be supported soon. The only drawback here is that it’s only available in early access.
Speed isn’t everything
While being fast is good, it’s also important for Home to be reliable. Because of this, Google has made enhancements “to reduce errors and interruptions.” Gemini will now better “identifying when a request is a standalone command versus a follow-up.” It will also begin ignoring irrelevant parts of conversations as well.
Routines should now also run a lot smoother, thanks to some optimizations that have been put into place. Of course, these are some huge changes coming to Home, but that’s not all of it. We have listed below all the changes mentioned by Google.
Camera
- Updated Camera Experience is starting to roll out: We’ve modernized the camera user experience with dynamic theming and made key features more easily accessible and discoverable. For Advanced plan subscribers of Google Home Premium, your timeline now includes AI descriptions, making it easier and more enjoyable to scroll through your history and identify interesting moments.
- Clearer Event Descriptions: We’ve refined our camera AI descriptions to remove unnecessary clutter, making them more accurate and easier to read at a glance.
- Faster Search: Finding what you’re looking for is now quicker, with camera search results loading noticeably faster in Ask Home.
- Simplified Camera Settings: Now your camera settings are much easier to find. We’ve elevated useful features such as Gemini for Home, familiar face detection and Activity Zones. Activity Zones are now much faster to configure and update. Seen and heard events are now combined into a single page, streamlining event recording and notification configuration.
Smart Home
- Take the guesswork out of ‘offline’ devices. We’ve added instant account-relinking prompts to the device controller pages in the app, so you’ll know when an expired partner link is the culprit—and how to fix it with a single tap.
Media & Casting
- Media Device Control: Our new media control experience when using Google Home App to cast music and videos to your Google smart speakers, smart displays, Google TV Streamer and other Cast devices is now available to all users. Putting your favourite artists’ beautiful album artwork front and center and giving you better access to playback controls and device management.
In addition to the above, Google is now offering more tools to help users and developers fine tune the experience. There will be a new Enhanced Diagnostics mode so that Google can better understand issues. Google Home Vitals will also launch, providing developers insights into how their tools work, and identify any issues that might be arising from users.
Lastly, Google is now implementing an “Account Hold” feature when, for whatever reason, a payment for Home Premium doesn’t go through. This will allow users to figure out what’s going on while still retaining the data on their account, like “video history, familiar faces, or AI event descriptions.”
