Android's latest feature drop is great news for die-hard smart home builders

As part of the May 2024 Android Feature Drop, Google is officially rolling out some much-awaited features for Google Home users. Those who have built their smart home centered around Google Home will now have more ways to control their favorite or most accessed smart home devices.

Android users can now add a Google Home widget to their home screen, featuring their favorite smart home device controls. This is incredibly useful, especially if you have devices that you constantly toggle or access throughout the day. The widget is also surprisingly flexible, letting you resize to your desired configuration to suit your home screen.

With the help of the Google Home widget, you can access your frequent toggles with even fewer clicks than before, without even opening the Google Home app. The caveat is that you will need to be a part of the Google Home Public Preview program to access this widget. We presume Google will graduate this feature to the stable branch in the future.

Further, Wear OS is getting a Google Home Favorites tile, bringing you an even more convenient way to control your smart home straight on your wrists. The tile works like other Wear OS tiles, and there’s a complication that lets you add it to supported watch faces, too.

These features may seem minor on the surface, but they add to the utility and convenience of a smart home, especially for devices that you toggle frequently outside of a fixed automation.