When you turn your home into a Smart Home, proper and easy controls are a must. Google Home is going to help you with the latter.
Turning your home into a Smart Home is probably done primarily for one reason: to make it all more comfortable and convenient. Smart lighting that you can easily control via Google Home, the heating on as soon as you enter and the speakers automatically off when you leave your house. All ideal.
Still, it all has to be clear and easy to control. You often do that via an app on your smartphone, such as Apple’s Home or Google Home. The latter is now getting a lot better.
Controlling your Smart Home even easier through Google Home
Google Home is currently testing a new feature for your Smart Home. This should ensure that friends and family can also easily control your Smart Home. Useful when you are on vacation, for example, or when your mother is watching your baby.
Currently, Google is testing adding friends and family to the Home app. To be precise, Google calls it “trusted partners,” or people who co-manage the home with you. You can simply add these to the app, also specifying which devices in your Smart Home they can or cannot access.
Controlling with your Pixel. (Image: Google)
For example, you can choose to allow them to see your security camera footage or to give voice commands. Overall, there are two levels in terms of access: admin for all functions, or member, where you determine what they can or cannot do.
Then again, those Google Home members have two options. The first is Settings, where they can fully control devices, and Activity, where you can determine what they are or are not allowed to do.
Here’s how to do it
The feature was first announced in November, so now it is being rolled out. Initially, it only applies to participants of the public preview of Google Home.
Are you a member of that? Then you can use the new feature by opening Google Home’s Settings. Then go to Household and Access. Here you can press the plus icon to add a new person. By the way, these do not have to participate in the public preview. However, they do need the latest version of the Google Home app.
