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The Google Home app public preview is live and you can sign up now
- The Google Home app public preview has gone live.
- Android and iOS users can now request an invite to the preview.
- The preview contains a number of new features.
Early last month, we reported that the Google Home app was getting a huge overhaul and that Google would release a public preview for it. However, the company didn’t give a specific date for when the public preview would be available. If you’ve been waiting for it, then you can stop because the preview has gone live.
Today, Google is beginning to roll out the Google Home app public preview. To kick things off, the Mountain View-based organization has started to allow Android and iOS users to request invites within the app, according to a new blog post.
In order to access the preview, you’ll need to follow a few steps. If the preview is available to you, all you have to do is go to the settings in Google Home. “Public Preview” should appear somewhere under “General.” Just hit “Request invite” and you’ll be sent an invite. The company states that you can also revoke an invite and go back to the stable version of the app from Settings as well.
Once you’re in the public preview, you’ll notice a range of new features. According to Google, these features include:
- Favorites: Add devices and actions to this tab for quick access to the most important things in your home. This includes the ability to favorite your compatible cameras so you can view your live streams as soon as you launch the app. At the top of the tab, you will see a new
- Spaces view that helps you quickly view and control groups of similar devices such as compatible lights, cameras, and thermostats.
- Devices: Easily find all of your compatible devices and check their status.
- Automations: Create and manage all your Household and Personal Routines in one place. With new starters, conditions and actions, you can now easily build and customize home automations that can make your home safer, your life easier, and your day more fun.
- Activity: Review what happened in and around your home.
- Settings: Find and manage settings for all of your devices, services and home members.
- Vertical video history timeline: Quickly scrub through hours of video history or jump to live view.
- Event views: Access a list of events and scrub to an exact moment. You can also see video in landscape mode on your phone or tablet.
- Quickly view live video on the home screen: See video from your Nest Cams and Doorbells all in one convenient place.
- Media mini player: See what’s playing in your home with quick access to controls so you can adjust the volume or access the remote.
Before you join the public preview, keep in mind that it is an unstable version of the Google Home app. It’s possible that you will run into bugs. Some known issues include an inability to favorite your automations, reverting to the stable version after reinstallation, lack of support for older devices, and more.