What you need to know
- After the recent revamp, Google Home released a new feature for Public Preview users.
- It allows users to add all lights in a room at once instead of adding them individually.
- The feature can also be found on the Home Panel for Pixel devices.
Google has started rolling out the most requested feature for its Google Home app, which recently got revamped after this year's I/O event.
The revamp came with a new Favorites pane in the Google Home app, giving users quick access to their frequently-used smart home controls. Now, users have the ability to add Room lights to the Favorites tab, states Anish Kattukaran, Product Director at Google Home and Nest, in the latest Tweet. The new feature currently for tolling out on the Public Preview version of the Google Home app for those enrolled.
We just rolled out one of the most heavily requested features from our Public Preview users to Public Preview… You can now add Room Lights (vs just individual lights) to your Favorites in the Google Home App and Home Panel 💡#GoogleHome pic.twitter.com/9jnEc34K4oJune 22, 2023
Before the update, the Google Home app users would have had to add lights individually, which may be annoying and cumbersome if you have multiple smart lights in a room. Lights could also be accessed from the Lighting shortcut on the Favorites tab, but that included all your connected lights, so this should at least help narrow things down.
Of course, you can also access this from the Devices section, but the point of the Favorites tab is that you should be able to access functions quickly, making this a welcome addition for smart light users.
The new Google Home has already received quite a few new functionalities this year, especially after the redesign announced in 2022 for public preview and fully launched Google I/O in May. Most recently, the app finally received a new script editor feature, which allows users to create their own smart home automations. It further supported third-party devices next to Matter-powered smart home devices as well.
According to Kattukaran, the new addition is available on the Home panel, which has been added to Pixel phones with the June 2023 update. The feature was initially launched on the new Pixel Tablet, providing quick access to smart home controls. It means users can access the Room lights feature right from their lock screen by hitting the "Google Home'' icon to access the quick settings feature.
