Google’s redesigned Home app started rolling out widely in May this year, but the company isn’t done with it just yet. While it looks a lot more modern than the design that preceded it, there are a few areas that need tweaking. The latest improvement to come to the app is related to the Favorites section, which now allows those on the Public Preview to add room lights.
The Favorites section was first added with the redesign, and it already makes it much easier to get quick access to your favorite smart home devices and lights in your household. The issue is that many people likely just want to turn on or off all lights in a room. Right now, this either means moving over to the Devices section and selecting the room lights you want to turn on or off, or tapping the Lighting shortcut at the top of the Favorites.
The addition of room lights to Favorites, announced by Google Home Product Director Anish Kattukaran on Twitter, will save you at least one tap. The room lights can serve as a replacement for your individual lights, as a long-press on them will open a detailed screen giving you quick access to all lights in the room in question (of course, you can also put both individual lights from a room and the full room into the Favorites section).
When you tweak your favorites to include room lights, the change is also supposed to go live in your home panel, which you can access via your quick settings tile or, depending on your phone, via a shortcut on your lock screen, though this doesn’t seem to work for everyone just yet.
The option to add room lights is rolling out to those on the Public Preview, which you can join by heading to the Settings tab and scrolling down to the Nest services & support section. Here, a menu entry for Public Preview allows you to get in on the fun.
Thanks: Hamzah