Google Home update improves ‘Find my phone’ voice commands

A new Google Home update has arrived with various improvements, including better support for “Find my phone” voice command on Gemini speakers.

In the early access arm of Gemini for Home, Google says users can expect “quality and reliability improvements” to the “Hey Google, find my phone” command that has been around for years. It’s unclear exactly what’s changing, but it’s a very useful voice command, so any upgrades will be welcome.

Improved Find My Phone reliability: Improvements to the quality and reliability of this fan-favorite feature when you ask Gemini to help you locate your phone.

Other Gemini voice improvements in this latest update include background noise and voice filtering, additional speed/latency improvements, better support for multilingual households, and improved reliability of custom commands in routines/automations.

Within the Google Home app itself, there are many smart home feature updates. This includes turning off lights when the brightness slider is lowered to zero, improving camera and doorbell tiles, reducing Matter switches incorrectly showing as offline, and improving the configuration of Nest devices.

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Device controller improvements

• Precise Smart Light Shutdown: We fixed an issue where dimming down to 0% on single lights or group dimmers would leave the bulbs on at minimum brightness instead of turning them off completely. Reducing your brightness to 0% now sends a permanent power-off command, preventing wasted power and unexpected ambient glow.
• Clearer inline camera and doorbell thumbnails: Online cameras and doorbells are now displayed at a glance as solid icons and accented thumbnail colors, helping you instantly distinguish active from inactive cameras.
• Precise Offline Switch Status: We fixed an issue where Matter Switches failed to display their offline state or respond to presses on the All Devices tab, ensuring tiles correctly display grayed out when disconnected.
• Trusted Favorites tile gestures: We fixed issues where long-pressing thumbnails in the Favorites tab failed to open device controllers or routine editors.
• Smarter detection of window coverings: We fixed the device type resolution so that awnings and curtains match precisely instead of defaulting all open and closed window coverings to blinds.

Configuration improvements

• Smoother setup of smart devices: We’ve improved end-to-end reliability when setting up Nest devices on iOS and Android. This includes under-the-hood fixes for Bluetooth connections and Wi-Fi pairing to eliminate common dropouts and freezes during the initial setup process.
• Faster standalone setup: When you add a new device to your home, the Google Home app can now securely cache network credentials on your mobile device and reuse them for your next device.

There’s also a new preview option for Nest Doorbell ringtones.

The app update is rolling out to Android, v4.31.27.1, while Gemini updates are happening behind the scenes for those with early access.

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