Google Home
Google Assistant devices such as the Nest Hub and Nest Mini are handy for a lot of things, and many folks use them for music above all else. But if you’re trying to use radio stations from services such as Pandora via a Google Home routine or an Assistant command, you may have noticed that the functionality is partially broken.
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The Google Home app has been undergoing a reinvention in over the past year, and one of the best new features is improved control over TV devices. If you happen to own a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync box, Google Home also just became the best app you can use for quick controls.
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Building on Google Assistant voice command support, Microsoft is rolling out an Xbox update that lets you remote control the console with the Google Home app.
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The Matter standard for smart home devices has been full of big promises, but the vast majority of people haven’t been able to experience it for themselves. If you’re curious, though, here’s what it’s actually like to use Matter on Android with the Google Home app.
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As part of the Home app Public Preview, Google has redesigned Wifi controls with the list of connected devices seeing the big upgrade.
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Some users of the Google Home app Public Preview have received a thorough survey asking them to rate the redesigned experience. Spanning 20+ pages, it appears as a card in the Activity tab.
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As first promised in 2021, the Google Home app is making tangible progress toward fully supporting previous generations of Nest Cam hardware, including setup.
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Some television sets can be controlled by the Nest Hub, and the Google Home app is now finally starting to pick up those touch-based controls.
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The smart home is being reinvented right now with the arrival of Matter, and going into 2023, we’re about to see a lot of changes. One of those is the new “Works with Google Home” banner on Matter products, with Govee among the first to adopt the branding with its first Matter-enabled light strip.
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The big shift for the majority of smart home brands this year will be the inclusion of the Matter standard in devices. With that, those devices are able to communicate with more ecosystems with ease. At CES, SwitchBot has unveiled the Hub 2, a bridge for SwitchBot Bluetooth devices to work with any ecosystem.
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As a product of Google Home’s restructuring, Google is bringing live video feeds to Nest Camera users over the web, with easy access to your cameras over the internet and without the Google Home app. This guide will take you through using the new site to view your Google Nest Cameras live in any browser.
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Citing user feedback since the Public Preview launched in October, Google is rolling out an update to the Home for Wear OS app.
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After years in the works, Matter is the next big hope for improving the smart home. Here’s what Google and Nest devices are compatible with Matter.
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Matter is finally happening. After launching the standard earlier this year and some manufacturers making their updates available, Google is today launching Matter support on Nest devices and Android.
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The move over to the Google Home app has been messy for Nest Cam owners for a variety of reasons, but things are finally coming together. If you use a Wear OS watch, though, the Google Home app is still missing the useful previews from Nest Cam, even on Google’s own Pixel Watch.
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Some, but not all, Google Assistant users received an “action required” email starting yesterday that warned about a bug that impacted hotword and other service settings.
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If you have a Nest x Yale lock in your home, you might have noticed something different about Google Home routines and Assistant interacting with the lock.
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An increasingly widespread issue with the Google Home app is causing many users to be unable to add new devices with a “could not reach” error preventing the process from finishing.
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As the Google Home ramps up preview testing for its big redesign, Google is making more tweaks to the UI, but also apparently breaking existing Assistant routines for some users.
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The Google Home app is moving towards a brighter future, and on that path the app is now rolling out far better support for sensors and sending out more invites to the Public Preview redesign.
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As promised, Google has rolled out an update for low Nest Wifi Pro speeds with PPPoE settings, while an issue with the Home app’s built-in speed test has been identified.
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If you use Netflix on Google devices and have been running into issues lately, you’re not alone. Netflix integration with Google products and the Google Home app is largely broken right now.
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The new Google Home app is finally on its way and public preview sign-ups are live now, but the app is still only available for a few people. If you haven’t yet had a chance to use it, what do you still want to know?
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The Google Home app started off as a solid way to manage your smart home devices, but as it has been flooded with new hardware and taken on the legacy of Nest, it hasn’t felt as though it was keeping up. Now, Google is moving toward a new Google Home app that makes some big promises, and we’ve spent a couple of days gathering a few first impressions.
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