Google’s revamped Home app is inadvertently being launched already, with Pixel tablet assets in tow

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Google teased that a redesigned Home app is in the works this week and that you’ll soon be able to sign up to participate in the beta. It looks like someone at the company pushed some buttons early, as someone has already received the new app via a Play Store update – complete with a warning that it’s a confidential internal build not shared with others shall be. This gives us our first glimpse of the new app in action.

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One of our tipsters first reported that he received the app update after opting in to receive Google Home app previews using a workaround. Since the sign-up process they use doesn’t appear to be fully live and intended for the public just yet, it’s possible this enabled our tipster to obtain the internal version of the app, complete with the “Dogfood” branding that Google uses to denote internal trials of apps. You can download this version of Home yourself from APK Mirror.


The new Home app is in a very early stage of development

While the new UI isn’t available to everyone, we’ve shared some images of our tipster, Android Police founder Artem Russakovskii, and Esper.io Android expert Mishaal Rahman, who were able to activate it. Just as teased by Google, the new UI shows off Material Design 3 elements with new button shapes and a new bottom bar, although it looks like it doesn’t yet support Material You themes based on your wallpaper.

Just as teased by Google, the new UI reorganizes the app’s navigation. The bottom bar now has five sections: Favorites, Devices, Automations, Activity, and Settings. It is possible to add a selection of your most used devices under Favorites, while you can see all devices on your network in the Devices section. Automations is where you can launch your custom household and personal routines, and add any new automations you might need.

There is also a whole new Debug section in Settings, making it clear that this app is not intended for public release. In it it is possible to change certain variables for test purposes, e.g. B. Your country and the cloud environment you are using.

The new UI already looks polished and promising, but it’s clear this is an early build. Favorites cannot yet be reordered and many devices are no longer recognized correctly. For example, a Nest Hub Max is only recognized as a display, but not as a camera. When trying to access the camera history for any device or for the entire home, the loading process is unbearably slow, starting from the oldest to the newest. Nest events also don’t provide audio. If you want to try this early app, be prepared to downgrade to a more stable version after playing around with it for a bit.

Teardown shows Pixel Tablet Stand and more

There are a few other interesting tidbits in the app. It already has a workflow for setting up Matter devices, but since the consortium has only now released Matter version 1.0, there probably aren’t any devices you own and actually set up that support Matter.

Mishaal Rahman was also able to find and enable a workflow for setting up your dock in the new app. Based on strings describing the feature, it’s clear that this is intended as a way to set up the Pixel tablet that Google teased during Google I/O. While we’ve seen magnetic connectors on the back of the device before, this pretty much confirms that the Pixel tablet will serve as a smart home hub. The description for the setup process goes on to say, “Dimme the lights with your voice, enjoy hands-free control, and personalize your tablet to your liking.”

Source: Mishaal Rahman

There are some other interesting finds in another quick teardown performed and shared with us by Android expert Mishaal Rahman. While we’re not sure when these first appeared, there’s evidence that Google is finally preparing the option to connect Nest Audio speakers to Google TV with Chromecast, so you can enjoy better sound quality while watching your favorite shows.

Your TV’s sound will play through the connected speakers & you can control the volume with your Chromecast remote.

Standard speaker set

Select audio output

Managed in the settings for your TV

TV standard

In addition, the app lays some groundwork for the new Google Nest Wifi router. The company is working to add a 160MHz channel switcher for better performance when using the 5GHz frequency.

Some devices are not compatible and may have lower performance. %1$s.

Use the 160MHz channel for maximum performance on 5GHz

The redesign is not live for everyone in the new version

Some people report that the redesign didn’t appear for them until they forcibly closed and then reopened the app. You can do this by tapping and holding the Home icon on your home screen and then selecting I button (or app information) and then select force stop. Unfortunately, the trick no longer seems to work. Many people who upgraded to the new version are stuck with the old UI. Google may have already noticed the accidental rollout and is preventing the switch to the new interface by adapting the APK on the server side.

Thanks: Anthony and Armando

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