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17

Google Home will soon let you specify what type of device a smart plug controls
The feature is already live on iOS, but not on Android

Manuel Vonau

Smart plugs are a great way to make simple electronics more intelligent — be it an old lamp with a non-removable light bulb, an older TV, or a coffee maker. However, the intelligent outlets have no way of telling what's plugged into them, so until recently, any smart plug just got a generic logo in the Home app. That changed when Google started automatically adjusting the symbol depending on what you call the device — e.g., "desk light" will give you a light bulb icon — but there was no way of manually changing it until now. It looks like Google wants to change this, as the iOS Home app has received an option to change the device type manually.

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48

Google officially reveals Nest speaker set to replace Home

Ryne Hager

Following those previous leaks, Google has taken a page out of its own book and shown us a glimpse of "what the Nest team is working on from home." The images (and video!) clearly depict the upcoming Nest Speaker, confirming the overall design we saw earlier today.

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58

This is Google's upcoming Nest speaker, the successor to the original Google Home
The strange shape of things to come

Scott Scrivens

The original air freshener-shaped Google Home speaker was announced a full four years ago, and we've long heard rumors of a successor with Nest branding in the same vein as other recent products. We're now getting what appears to be our first proper look at this new speaker, and boy does it have a weird shape.

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15

Upcoming Google Home improvements include Assistant routines from device makers
The most obvious highlight is the Android 11 power menu controls

Jules Wang

Google has just come off of its virtual "Hey Google" Smart Home Summit with a bouquet of goodies that will let developers make their appliances more useful and, in turn, help people do things around the house in a smarter way. Some of the changes are ones we've already reported on, but there are a few you probably aren't aware of that might just fit your bill.

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'Hey Google' Smart Home Summit to take place on July 8
The developer-focused event will cover new features coming to Google's smart home platform

Scott Scrivens

Google has announced a Smart Home Virtual Summit on July 8 with a keynote, panel discussion, and various other developer sessions that would likely have been part of Google I/O last month had that event not been canceled. While it's only meant for developers building hardware and/or software that works with Google's smart home platform, we could also learn about some upcoming user-facing features, too.

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51

Broadcasting messages to a single Google or Nest Home is rolling out again to some users
Instead of startling the entire house

Rita El Khoury

This story was originally published and last updated . 

It's been more than a couple of years since Google added a broadcast functionality to its Home speakers, but the feature was an all-or-nothing approach. You could either send the message to all speakers in a home or none at all. Now, and for the second time in a few months, it seems that Google is rolling out to some users an option to broadcast to a single speaker or room, an improvement we've wanted for more than two years.

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21

Google is building the premium Google Home we've all been asking for

Ryne Hager

According to a report by 9to5Google, a new Nest-branded speaker with the hardware name "prince" is on the horizon, seemingly to replace the now-discontinued original Google Home. Apart from its abstract existence, all we know is that it should pack a bit more thump than the previous model did — 9to5 puts it somewhere between the OG Home and the Home Max.

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46

Of course Google should make a successor to the Google Home
Not doing so would be incredibly foolish

David Ruddock

The original Google Home was a wildly successful product. Google sold millions of its debut smart speaker, and when it came on the scene in late 2016 to challenge Amazon's Echo, while it lost the market share battle, Google showed the world a smart speaker didn't have to feel quite so dumb. It is plainly obvious Google should build a successor to this now-discontinued product.

The Home was the Volkswagen Golf to the Home Mini's Polo.

Subsequent launches of the Home Mini (replaced by the Nest Mini) and Home Max filled out Google's smart speaker range, and the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max later offered a more visual stationary Assistant experience.

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41

The original Google Home is no longer available on the Google Store — is a successor on the way?
End of a cylindrical era

Rita El Khoury

I/O 2016 feels like an eternity ago. It was a simpler time when Google didn't know what it would call Android N, Daydream was new, Allo had just launched, and the smart speaker ecosystem was about to see the first challenger to Amazon's Echo thanks to the original Google Home. With its iconic air freshener design, removable bases, and innovative features, the original Google Home quickly became one of the most interesting devices to come out of Google in 2016, and started a whole lineage of Home and Nest speakers and smart displays. Four years later, the Home appears to be reaching the end of its life as it's "no longer available" on Google's Store.

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40

How to turn your old Android phone or tablet into a remote control for your smart home
For those times when using your voice isn't an option (or you don't want it to be)

Hagop Kavafian

This story was originally published and last updated . 

Making your home smarter is probably on more people's minds than ever right now, but it can become a seriously dizzying project just remembering all the various voice commands and apps involved, to the point that you might even want a dedicated piece of hardware for controlling it all. Kind of like a universal TV remote, but for light bulbs, cameras, and smart thermostats. And using an old smartphone, you basically can, just as long as it isn't too old.

One of Android's real perks is that, while many phones do stop getting updated eventually, Google supports them for a tremendously long time via Play Store and Play Services updates so that their popular apps continue to work even on seemingly ancient hardware.

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