Some of you may remember when Google rolled out their Preview Program for Chromecasts last year, which allowed the intrepid to try new firmware releases before they were officially ready for public consumption. Well, users of the Google Home will be able to opt-in to a program of the same name, too. If you are the adventurous early-adopter type to give it a try, prepare for a future of pre-release excitement.
Instructions for signing up for the Preview Program just appeared on Google's help pages for the Google Home, though our own attempts to sign up were unfortunately fruitless. It is possible that the program, though unannounced, is now full, as the page does warn that, "If you don’t see [the] Preview Program, we aren’t accepting new members at this time." It could also be that changes to the help page went live before the program itself.
If you'd like to give it a try, the full instructions for signing up are below.
- From your phone or tablet, open the Google Home app.
- In the upper right corner of the home screen, tap Devices to see your available Chromecast and Google Home devices.
- Scroll to find the device card for the device you'd like to enroll in the Preview Program.
- In the top right corner of the device card, tap the device card menu.
- Tap Settings > Preview Program. If you don’t see Preview Program, we aren’t accepting new members at this time. Please continue to check back as opportunities become available.
- Choose whether to receive email notifications by moving the slider to the right or left. Note: We recommend allowing email notifications so you’ll know when new updates are pushed to your device.
- If you opt-in to email notifications, you'll be asked to sign into your Google account if you haven’t already.
- Review the contents of that page, and tap Join Program.
- Review the contents of the page, then tap OK, GOT IT.
Users of the Preview Program will get to check out new features early, and although Google claims that the software is "of the same quality as production version updates," users may also find some small instabilities, as those builds will not have been tested as widely. They are also asked to provide feedback if they experience any problems.