Hey Google Nest Community,
We know that sharing a smart home can get complicated, especially when you’re trying to tailor the experience to each guest. We’ve made some improvements to how sharing a home and devices work in the Google Home app to help make this simpler.
With Google Home app 3.33, you can share access to your home safely and efficiently with various family members, roommates, and guests. With the new Member role you can add those you trust, without giving anyone more control than they need. Choose between full Admin access or customizable Member access when you invite a new person to your Google Home. With the Member role you can toggle additional permission levels for Activity (viewing device and home history) and Settings (full management of home devices and automations).
For the first time, you also can allow your child to use the Google Home app to help turn on and off lights, control music, and unlock the door when they get home from school. To add a child under the age of 13 (or the applicable age in your country) to your home, they must be part of your Google family group and they only can join your home as a Member.
What people of different access levels can do
When adding a person to the home, their access levels can be set based on the permissions you want to give them.
- For trusted partners or people who co-manage the home with you, give them Admin access.
- If you want someone to have limited permission, add them as a Member and customize whether they have Settings or Activity access.
|
Permission |
Access Level |
|
|
Admin |
Member |
|
|
Add, manage, and remove people |
✔ |
|
|
Delete the home |
✔ |
|
|
Add and remove devices |
✔ |
|
|
Share devices and data with partner services |
✔ |
|
|
Link a subscription to the home |
✔ |
|
|
Set up or manage presence sensing for the home or shared devices |
✔ |
|
|
Full device control and device settings |
✔ |
Only with Settings access |
|
Manage home-wide settings (household automations, home address, Nest Wifi device network and features, Nest Aware and Nest Renew features) |
✔ |
Only with Settings access |
|
Use the home's devices in the Nest app |
✔ |
|
|
Check device and home-wide history (camera, lock, Nest Wifi, home presence history) |
✔ |
Only with Activity access |
|
Check or manage camera clip-lending for devices in the home |
✔ |
|
|
Deletion of any history in the home |
✔ |
|
|
Basic device controls (ex. live view of cameras) |
✔ |
✔ |
|
Personal settings
|
✔ |
✔ |
The Member tier previously became available in Public Preview in December 2024. If you want to learn more about sharing a home, see this Help Center article. We hope these improvements help you create a more helpful home.
If you want to read more about what changed this version, take a look at our release notes!
Thanks,
The Google Nest Team
