The Google Home experience offers a lot, but it's also been known to overlook some features that took years to address. As more updates continue to improve Google Home's capabilities, what do you want to see next?
See also: Google Home finally adds support for buttons
This week, the latest Google Home update began rolling out to address some of the long-standing complaints.
First, Nest owners should finally stop seeing the annoying message that says their videois “not yet available” after tapping a notification. This is a problem that has plagued Home for years and has sometimes made Google’s smart cameras seem useless for their main purpose – security.
Google says the latest Home updates include a “fundamental fix” for this issue. While it was never a consistent enough problem to immediately see if the fix actually works, the improvements were long overdue.
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This latest Google Home update continues to invest in automations, with the big news being the addition of smart buttons as triggers.
While voice commands and app controls are the backbone of the smart home, nothing can truly replace physical control, which is why it's really nice that Google Home finally supports buttons. It was a bit of a struggle at first as some of them don't work as they should, but like the Nest fix, this was something that was long overdue.
Compared to Alexa, SmartThings , and Home Assistant, this was a big gap in Home's automation ambitions.
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Most of the big issues with Home over the years have been addressed at this point. Nest cameras work great now, Gemini add-ons have been solid, and automations continue to get more useful. There are plenty of little details that could use some work, like the offline lights bug that Google said it would fix, but there aren't many "big" features that need further tweaking.
