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Google continues its trend of rolling out major Google Home updates almost every other week. Just two weeks after the last update, the company is pushing another bunch of improvements for the Google Home app and Gemini for Home. This includes Gemini being better at understanding your "stop" commands and ending conversations more naturally.
Google's October 14 release notes for Google Home highlight that Gemini for Home now responds differently depending on how you end a conversation. If you say "thank you," it will reply with a brief, warm goodbye. And if you say "stop," it will immediately close the microphone without another response.
This update also addresses another issue where Gemini could misinterpret your "stop" as a way to end a conversation instead of stopping music, timers, or alarms.
Gemini will also be better at providing weather-related answers, accounting for your temperature unit preferences in the Google Home app. So if you prefer Celsius, Gemini's weather responses will now use that temperature unit.
On smart displays, Gemini's spoken responses will now sync with the on-screen text scrolling speed for a better reading experience.
Lastly, Gemini for Home will do a better job of distinguishing between relaxing music and ambient sounds. It will no longer play background sounds like white noise or rain when you ask it for relaxing music or meditation music.
Google Home gets refreshed controls and faster local responses
Besides Gemini for Home, Google is rolling out several notable improvements to the Google Home app. The biggest change is a redesigned set of controls for third-party lights, plugs, and switches. Google says the refreshed controls should make adjusting brightness, changing colors, and turning devices on or off feel more responsive.
There is also a new panel that makes additional options easier to access. In the full-screen controller view for most lights, plugs, switches, fans, and air purifiers, swipe up from the bottom to access options for adding devices to favorites, viewing device history, submitting feedback, and opening full device settings.
If you have Philips Hue bridges, Google is now automatically upgrading them in the background to use local Matter control through Google Home hubs. Google says this should deliver faster response times and improved reliability.
Other compatible Matter devices can also benefit from local control if you have a compatible Matter hub.
The full release notes of Google Home’s October 14 update are as follows:
Voice Assistant
- More natural ways to end a conversation: Improved how Gemini wraps up back-and-forth conversations. When you end a conversation on a polite or neutral note (like saying "Thank you"), Gemini now replies with a brief, warm goodbye, while staying silent and closing the microphone immediately when you give a direct command to stop talking.
- Consistent temperature units for weather: Updated weather answers to respect the home-wide temperature unit preference (Fahrenheit or Celsius) you’ve set in the Google Home app (Home Settings > Temperature Units), so spoken weather forecasts always match the rest of your home.
- Easier-to-read answers on smart displays: Increased the on-screen text scrolling speed on smart displays so visual answers stay in sync with Gemini’s spoken response.
- More reliable "stop" commands: Fixed an issue where saying "stop" could be misinterpreted as ending a conversation rather than stopping your active media playback, timers, or alarms.
- Better distinction between relaxing music and ambient sounds: Improved how Gemini routes requests for relaxing audio so asking for "relaxing music", "spa music", or "meditation music" plays music from your media provider instead of ambient background sounds like white noise or rain.
Google Home App
App Surfaces
- Smoother Favorites reordering: We’ve resolved drag-and-drop instability in the Favorites view, making it easier to organize your top devices.
- Improved messaging after smoke or CO alarm: The app now displays a banner when a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm clears, showing the event and time to reassure users that their home is safe.
Camera
- Faster recovery when live view gets stuck (iOS): Fixed an issue where camera tiles could stay stuck on an old snapshot instead of loading live video. The app now retries the connection automatically.
- Responsive progress bar scrubbing while paused (Android): Fixed an issue where dragging the progress bar while an event video was paused could leave the player stuck on a loading spinner.
- Fixed playback errors on snapshot events (Android): Selecting a still-image snapshot in your event history no longer shows a playback error, and the event is now highlighted correctly on the timeline.
Smart Home Controls
- Redesigned lights, plugs, and switch controls: We've rebuilt the core controls for third-party lights, plugs, and switches with a refreshed look and feel. Turning devices on or off, adjusting brightness, and changing colors now feels more tactile and responsive.
- Quick access settings panel: On the full-screen controller page for most devices (lights, plugs, switches, fans, air purifiers) you can now swipe up from the bottom of the screen to quickly access additional device actions and settings. Add to favorites, view device history, find help center articles, submit feedback, and access full device settings.
Matter
- Local Matter control for Philips Hue lights: Existing Philips Hue bridges now automatically upgrade in the background to local Matter control through Google Home hubs, delivering faster response times and greater reliability with no re-pairing required.
- Local control for Matter devices: If you have compatible Matter devices and a compatible Matter hub, you can now unlock faster response times and enhanced reliability, bringing the control experience closer to the feel of flipping a physical switch.