Lenovo Smart Display update adds multi-room audio grouping, Live Albums, Home View, more

When the Lenovo Smart Display first showed up at my doorstep, I noticed that there were a number of differences between the Smart Display platform and Google Home. The one feature that turned a lot of potential customers off was the inability to add the Smart Display to multi-room audio groups. Thankfully, an update that’s rolling out now includes this functionality and much more.

Earlier this month when Google showed off the Home Hub, the company also introduced several new features such as Live Albums from Google Photos, Home View, and the ability to view video from a Nest Video Doorbell. As Lenovo recently announced in its forums, all of these things are included in an update that’s rolling out now to the Lenovo Smart Display. If you’re not seeing them just yet, the update can take several weeks to reach everyone.

Additionally, the Google Assistant powering the Lenovo Smart Display is getting the much-needed support to control entertainment devices around your home. This includes smart TVs from Hisense, Philips, Sharp, Sony, Vizio, Xiaomi, set-top boxes from Dish, Foxtel, NVIDIA, Sling, Vodafone, speakers, and universal remotes. With this update, the Smart Display should be able to turn on and off devices, adjust the volume, and even visually display a channel guide (where applicable).

If you don’t own a Lenovo Smart Display and instead have a JBL Link View, these updates should be coming your way soon too. JBL hasn’t mentioned these new features yet, but Google controls the firmware and update process for all Smart Displays. If the update is rolling out to Lenovo’s devices, it should also be on its way to JBL’s. 

I know that a lot of people held off on buying the Lenovo Smart Display and other Smart Displays because it didn’t initially include multi-room audio grouping. If you were one of those people, Best Buy has taken $20 off of the eight-inch and 10-inch’s price tags, so now is as good of a time as ever to buy one.