- Google Home is rolling out updates for Find My Phone and other voice commands
- It's also fixing bugs with video doorbells, security cameras, and Automations
- Despite the upgrades, users are still running into performance issues
If you’re a Google Home early access user, you’ll be glad to learn that the company is rolling out an expansive roster of new upgrades for voice commands, the Google Home app, and more — as per Google’s notes.
Google Home updates are fairly consistent with Google keeping on top of refreshing its smart home services. Just two weeks ago it fixed Gemini’s follow-up question issues as well as streaming playback bugs, which the tech giant also detailed in its Home and Nest help page.
Prior to this, Google announced it had solved issues with Spotify voice commands and smart light controls, however users claimed there were even bigger issues that needed addressing. But despite the new round of improvements, it appears Google still hasn’t been able to solve the issues plaguing users.
Voice commands
Voice command improvements are the main fixes that Google has rolled out. For starters, the company says that Gemini is more proficient in filtering out background chatter in your home when you’re making a voice request, as well as other smaller issues including reduced latency for sharper responses and more fixes to conversation follow-ups.
That said, one of the most valuable upgrades is for the Find My Phone tool, which Google says it has rolled out quality and reliability improvements to improve the experience. Additionally, language recognition for Gemini is getting an upgrade, which the company says will ‘better support households where three languages are commonly spoken’.
Google Home app
As far as the Google Home App goes, the company is rolling out more device controller upgrades, which includes more accurate smart light shutoff, redesigned camera and doorbell tiles to better distinguish active cameras, and improved offline switch status, fixing an issue where Matter switches failed to display their offline status.
Google is also rolling out Bluetooth connection and Wi-Fi pairing fixes for setting up new Nest devices on iOS and Android. Also, when you add a device to your ecosystem, the Google Home app will cache network information on your smartphone, so you can reuse them for setting up new devices in the future.
Camera fixes
For devices such as the AI-powered Nest Doorbell and security cameras, you can expect to see fixes for video history viewing, removing an error that displayed a ‘Video not available’ pop-up when trying to access footage. If you own any of Walmart’s Onn devices, you should now be able to scrub your video timelines a lot smoother.
Google is also launching new ringtone audio previews for video doorbells, which allows you to listen to snippets of chimes right from the Google Home app before setting it as your default. Google says it will be rolling out holiday-themed chimes, while different themes will become available throughout the year.
Automations
The final fix is with Automations, which Google says has eliminated a bug where multi-button switches and sub-devices were missing the names of their parent devices. It’s a small fix, but one that helps you differentiate between buttons.
Is this enough?
The transition from Google Assistant to Gemini has been far from a smooth operation, and users have been reporting severe performance issues since Google made its first steps with integrating Gemini into its smart home devices.
That said, since Google unveiled its latest update, users have welcomed the new improvements — mainly the chime sound previews and upgrades to Automations. However there's a handful of users that Google has yet to convince.
Despite the rollout of Google's upgrades users are finding themselves yet stuck in another cycle of performance issues when using Gemini for Home, and it seems to be the case more so for audio devices and voice commands.
As one user highlights on Reddit, their Google speaker turns itself off in the middle of the night when playing white noise, which, if you rely on sleep sounds to get a full eight hours, is quite frustrating to say the least. The same goes for voice commands, and as one user shared, Gemini is still having issues with switching off devices within a specific time frame.
As it stands, there's still a lot that Google has to come to grips with as it enters the final stages of the Gemini for Home takeover. While some fixes are proving to be successful, there's still work to be done before Google Home users are satisfied.
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