Google seems to be allergic to perfection. Designs and interfaces are constantly changing, but how many of them actually improve? Google Home is a perfect example; it’s been an absolute mess for years, which is why the latest update was a long time coming. We finally have a new redesign to dig into, and on the surface, everything looks better. But once you get into it, it’s easy to see that Google still has a lot of work to do.
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Because of this, I rarely used the Google Home app to control the temperature of my thermostat. And I have to say that setting up the hardware was so tedious that my AC installer was stumped and I had to figure out the wires he had just installed. But with the recent update to the Home app, I can say that things are getting better on the software side. Pinning my favorites to the app’s home screen is handy, and since I don’t have many smart devices to connect to the app, it’s pretty easy to find them and add them to the Favorites section.
Occasional use seems to be the new focus
But should it be that?
It seems like Google designed the interface with casual users like me in mind, because a chat with AP developer Artem Russakovskii revealed that there’s no easy way to add hundreds of connected devices to your favorites list if you own them. Clearly there has to be a way to search and sort your hardware when you add those items to favorites, but that option just doesn’t exist, which seems like a pretty big oversight to me, not to mention Artem (Artem’s happiness lives on).
On a positive note, I like the new design of the thermostat settings. It’s clear and easy to understand, which is something I couldn’t say about the old design. While there wasn’t much forethought in the design of the favorites section, the thermostat design is a big improvement as I can change my schedule or mode with just a few taps and not have to dig around in a maze of settings scattered throughout the app.
Being impressed with the new thermostat UI, I finally decided to dive headfirst into the Home app and spent some time hooking up my many Govee bulbs. Not only were they incredibly easy to add, far outshining the native Govee app, but the bulbs are also incredibly easy to control. Yes, I lose access to the animated light settings when using the Home app, but on top of that I can set each individual bulb to the color I want, with individual controls for their brightness that can also be set as a group. I’m very happy with it, I no longer have to mess with the awful Govee Home app just to turn my bulbs on and off.
But while I’m pretty happy with Home’s thermostat and lighting controls, there are still a few issues that irk me. Automations are a sticking point, as they’re poorly designed and lack the necessary features. There’s little explanation of how they work in the first place. I had to click through the default routines just to figure out what they do. Worse, there’s no second layer to this functionality, so if you want to set routines to interact with other routines, you’re out of luck and run right back into the problem Artem pointed out, which is that controlling hundreds of devices is incredibly cumbersome. So I’m left wondering why Google doesn’t care about pleasing power users. Everything seems designed for casual use, which certainly feels counterintuitive when power users are the ones likely to invest in new and unproven technologies like that of the smart home.
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At least Google seems to realize that some of its customers may have a whole bunch of hardware devices they want to connect, so the Activity screen offers filters to help you get to the gear you need information about, which makes the lack of filters when adding favorites all the more puzzling.
I am still grateful for the improvements we have received
We hope that more are on the way
To me, Google Home still feels unfinished, and while I like the design better and it meets my minimal needs, there are still some glaring issues. And frankly, it took way too long to get this new interface after suffering through the old one for ages. That said, I’m still not incredibly excited about bringing more smarthome gear into my home since Google is still taking its time finalizing the Home app, but I can get on board with the idea as long as Google can continue to improve the experience.
