Google Home 4.0: A Complete Redesign of the App, Faster and Enhanced with Gemini
During its connected home event, unveiling Gemini for Home and the new Google Home Speaker, Google introduced a revamped version of the Google Home app.
The goal: to address speed and reliability issues while incorporating its AI assistant Gemini to deliver a smarter and more centralized experience.
Performance at Last
Google acknowledges that the Google Home app had not been performing up to expectations. Thus, the focus was on enhancing speed and stability:
- 70% faster startup time.
- 80% fewer crashes.
- Over 100 performance and feature updates in the past year.
The app now manages over 800 million compatible devices from 50,000 manufacturers.
Complete Nest Integration
Ten years after acquiring Nest, the migration is finally complete:
- Support for Nest thermostats (since 2015), including energy history and scheduling.
- Integration of Nest cameras and doorbells, along with migration of histories.
- Support for Nest Protect detectors and Nest x Yale locks.
Google also promises a smoother camera experience:
- Live feeds 30% faster.
- 40% reduction in playback failures.
- Video history is now 6x more responsive.
Simplified New Interface
The app is now organized around three tabs: Home, Activities, and Automations. The redesign focuses on a simplified layout with these three tabs. The Home tab offers a consolidated overview and introduces new gestures for a much smoother one-handed use, allowing easy navigation among your favorites, all devices, and dedicated dashboards.
The Activities tab displays a unique history of all your connected devices’ events. Here, you will also find the home summary, providing a brief recap of your day. Keep in mind that this feature requires a Google Home Premium subscription.
The Automations tab presents a new carousel showing upcoming automations, and the editor has been completely revamped for a quick and native experience on both iOS and Android. This opens the door to powerful new features, such as creating one-time automations or using new conditional triggers to execute routines only when someone is present.
Interactions are more similar to YouTube: double tap to fast forward/rewind, swipe gestures to navigate between views and tabs.
Gemini at the Core of the Experience
The AI assistant transforms the app into the true brain of your home:
- Home Brief: daily summary of events (deliveries, visits, activities of kids or pets).
- Ask Home: an intelligent search engine to find a camera clip, check if a door is left open, or create a routine on the fly.
- AI Descriptions: enriched notifications (e.g., “FedEx delivery person dropped off a package” instead of “Movement detected”).
- Energy insights: query the energy consumption of your TV, air conditioning, or other devices.
Some advanced features require Google Home Premium (10 euros/month), which is included for free for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers.
Availability
The Google Home 4.0 update will begin rolling out globally on October 1st. To access early, open the app, go to Home Settings, and activate Early Access.
With this redesign, Google promises an app that finally meets expectations: smoother, clearer, and powered by AI to anticipate your needs. It remains to be seen whether this new version will win over users frustrated by its previous limitations.
