Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A teardown of the Google Home app has revealed that Google is bringing several major UI tweaks to the app.
- Google could make it much easier to set up Matter gadgets thanks to a floating action button.
- The company could also ditch the settings tab and move the settings menu into the Google account menu.
The Google Home app is your phone’s hub for all smart home activity, allowing you to access and control a variety of gadgets. Now, it looks like Google is tidying up the app by making a few UI changes.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
We dug into the latest version of the Google Home app for Android (version 3.32.69.1) and discovered several UI tweaks. We were able to enable them as well. For starters, the settings menu is no longer a separate tab but has been moved into the Google account menu in the top right. Check out the before (L) and after images below.
Meanwhile, Google has introduced a floating action button (FAB) for scanning QR codes to the devices tab. This will allow users to quickly set up their Matter-enabled devices in Google Home. You can view this button and our previously uncovered search bar in the screenshot below.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
Finally, Google is also bringing a search button to the favorites tab, as seen below. This will presumably let you search for specific devices and/or actions in this tab.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
In any event, these tweaks should make for a better experience. Many Google apps have the settings menu in the account menu, so this change would be more intuitive for lots of people. The QR code scanner button should also make life easier when setting up Matter gadgets. Right now, users need to visit the devices tab, tap the Add button, and then choose Matter-enabled device to access the QR code scanner.
