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Google Home Release Notes: May 11th

GoogleNestTeam
Community Manager (Admin)
Community Manager (Admin)
2 weeks ago

Hey Google Home & Nest Community! 

Here are the latest updates from Google Home posted today 5/11 on g.co/home/notes

Gemini for Home: voice assistant (early access)

Quick & Simple Feedback on Smart Displays
Your feedback is critical to helping us make Gemini for Home even better for you. We're introducing a new faster way to give feedback on Gemini for Home on smart displays. Following most voice interactions, thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons will appear. Simply tap thumbs up if you're satisfied or thumbs down if you're dissatisfied. This will help us zero in on what we need to improve next. Thank you and keep the feedback coming. 

Smarter, Faster Smart Home

We’ve improved how Gemini interacts with your smart home devices, focusing on both deeper personalization and faster response times. Gemini can now leverage information you saved in Ask Home, when asking questions about camera history, as you speak to it on your smart speakers and displays. It uses explicit information that you chose to save about family members or frequent visitors, such as “our nanny’s name is Alice” to intelligently resolve camera search queries for a more seamless experience. For example, Gemini may search for a familiar face tagged as Alice if you ask if your nanny arrived. 

You can also get a quick recap of what happened at home while you were away by asking for your "Home Brief" on your speaker or display. At the same time, we've optimized backend processing for device commands, making actions like turning on lights noticeably faster and more responsive.

Try saying:

  • "When did the nanny come home?"
  • "Where is my wife's car?"
  • "Give me my Home Brief for the day"
  • "Turn on the living room lights"

Faster Alarms & Timers

Setting your daily alarms and timers should now be noticeably quicker. We’ve streamlined how queries and commands are processed so Gemini responds much faster, reducing wait times and the need to repeat yourself while improving overall reliability.

Try saying:

  • "Set a 10 minute timer"
  • "Set an alarm for 7 AM"

Expanded Access for Answers

We’ve updated our safeguards to provide more helpful content for adult users. While we maintain strict protections to prevent age-inappropriate content for younger users, adults will now experience improved availability for general queries, including recipes for age-gated beverages.

Try saying:

  • "Give me the recipe to make a margarita"

 

If Gemini for Home is not responding to your requests appropriately, please be sure to check both your Parental Controls & Digital Wellbeing settings and your Gemini for Home response filter settings in the Google Home app.

Improved Onboarding Discovery

Gemini is now better at helping you find new ways to use it. When you ask Gemini for help getting started, it now reliably responds with clear suggestions tailored to your needs, helping you discover new ways to interact.

Try saying:

  • "What can you do?"

 

Google Home App 

These features and improvements are available in Google Home App version 4.16, and are beginning to roll out today.

App Features & Improvements

Energy

Nest Thermostats

  • One-tap temperature overrides: You can now instantly pause the use of outdoor temperatures to heat or cool your home directly from your thermostat controller. This gives you immediate flexibility to adjust your home’s temperature on the fly without changing your long-term automatic settings.
  • Up-to-date schedule advice: Thermostat schedule banners now always include the most relevant information, guaranteeing that the recommendations and schedules displayed are always timely and tailored to your current environment.

Works with Google Home Thermostats

  • More controls for non-Nest thermostat on iOS: On iOS, you can now seamlessly manage compatible third-party thermostats and air conditioners directly from the Google Home app, just like on Android.

Device Setup 

New Device Setup Experience
Setting up new smart home devices is now simpler with the new QR code discovery flow. We have replaced the previous multi-option setup menu with a convenient QR code scanner that guides you to the correct setup path for your device. This streamlined experience removes the guesswork (Is this a ‘Matter-enabled device’ or a ‘Works with Google Home’ device or a ‘Google Nest’ device) from adding new products, helping you get them connected with greater ease and confidence.

 

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