After announcing last month, the Google Home Public Preview app goes live.
Google is rolling out the ability to request an invitation today for public preview on Google Home for Android and iOS.
After streaming, tap the gear icon in settings and you should see “Public Preview” in the “General” section. Click “Request Invitation” to continue. You can also “Cancel invitation request” here. You can revert to the stable version of the app at any time after joining.
If you are accepted, in The Google Home app will be notified that it will soon be updated to public preview.
Google announces that the following new features are currently available in the Home app:
- Favorites: Easy access to your favorite devices and activities. This includes the ability to add your cameras to favorites so you can watch live streams as soon as you launch the app.
- Spaces: Quick access to groups of similar devices, such as lights.
- Devices. Find all your devices and easily check their status.
- Updated camera and timeline views:
- Vertical video history timeline: Quickly view hours of video history or go to live view.
- Event Views: Access the list of events and jump to a specific moment. Watch videos in landscape mode on your phone or tablet.
- Quick Actions: Watch and chat with someone in front of the camera or doorbell with live or pre-recorded messages. Call the emergency number (US Nest Aware subscribers only), access device settings and download any event to your phone.
- Mini Player: See what's playing in your home and adjust the volume or access your remote control.
- Action: See what's happening in your home and around.
- Settings : Find and manage devices, services, and home members.
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Next “Known Issues” including supported devices is also listed:
- Initially, you will be able to favorite your devices and activities in the Favorites tab, but not automations. Adding automation to favorites coming soon.
- The new camera controller interface (with live and vertical history view) is only available for Nest cameras and doorbells that have been set up using the Google Home app. These include Nest Cam (Battery), Nest Cam with Spotlight, Nest Cam (Indoor, Wired), Nest Doorbell (Battery), and Nest Doorbell (Wired, 2nd Generation). Support for older cameras is coming soon.
- The updated Google Home app does not support some older devices (such as Nest Protect) from the Nest app.
- After reinstalling, the app may revert to the old interface the first time startup. Subsequent runs will restore the public preview.
