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Free Google Home Update Makes It Easier To Find Your Smart Home Devices

A Google Home Mini sat next to a phone with the Google Home app on the screen.

Google Home has just added a free upgrade to its app to make it easier to find your smart home devices. This new helpful search feature means you'll never have to endlessly scroll through your devices again to find the right one, making your smart home experience more seamlessly and streamlined.

Google Home has seen some major updates this year, including a complete redesign of the app, and further expansion into AI with its "Help me script". But this new search feature has simplicity in mind and is designed to help users find the device they need in little to no time at all.

In the Google Home app, Google has added a new search bar so you can quickly and easily find your smart home devices.

Everyone who has a smart home set-up will know how time consuming it can be to scroll through to find the right devices on an app. Whether you have one of the best security cameras set up or have a full ecosystem featuring the best video doorbells and the best smart lights, having more than one device in an app can be overwhelming and it's surprisingly easy to turn off the wrong thing with the many names and gadgets on your list.

To solve this problem, the new Google Home search bar allows you to easily access everything. All you have to do is go to the Devices page, and you'll see a 'Search for Devices' bar. There, you can type in the name of your devices to immediately locate it in the app. You'll be able to see smart home devices that are currently on your network and gadgets that are currently offline.

Google Home AI updates

This latest upgrade is exclusive to devices that are linked to your Wi-Fi network and is currently available on Google Home 3.9 for Android. The new functionality has yet to be added to iOS but it's expected to become available down the line.

The new search bar feature probably sounds incredibly simple… and it is! But it's a much needed upgrade for those who have a lot of smart home devices dotted around their home. Not only does it make it quicker and easier to manage your devices, but you can have immediate access to everything you have set-up so you can make changes accordingly.

While the Google Home app is getting incredibly advanced improvements to its interface, like the new AI "Help me script", it's important to remember that not everyone is great with technology. For technophobes or people who find routines and automations a little tricky, having a simple upgrade like a search bar can make controlling and customising your smart home less daunting and more straightforward.

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Google Home Adds Search Bar For Devices On Your Wi-Fi Network

The Google Home app is adding a small but handy search feature to quickly find what Wi-Fi devices are on your network.

Opening the Wifi page and selecting the Devices page reveals a new "Search for devices" bar, which is quite thick. As you start typing, the list of what's connected to your Google or Nest Wifi router will update. Results include both devices currently on your network and those "Offline." Given the live nature of this list, items have a tendency of updating too frequently if "Real time" sort is set. Search is now one way around that. Wi-Fi device search rolled out with Google Home 3.9 on Android. We're not seeing this qualify-of-life improvement on iOS yet. Meanwhile, people would certainly appreciate a similar lookup capability for the Devices tab, especially those with dozens of smart home gadgets. Favorites helped prioritize things, but it's easy for things to get unwieldy. It would also be handy for the Automations list. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Google Rolls Out Android 14 QPR2 Beta 1.1 For Pixel Devices

Google dropped another beta for its Android 14 QPR2 release in preparation for the March update.

The devices include Pixel 5a and above, as well as the Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet.

The latest release primarily fixes app-related issues on Pixel phones.

Google recently dropped Android 14 QPR2 Beta 1 last week, bringing minor improvements and bug fixes. Now, the search giant has released yet another beta on Tuesday with a couple of other bug fixes.

The Android 14 QPR2 beta 1.1 is now available for users on the Android Beta for Pixel program on devices including the Pixel 5a, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7a, Pixel 6, Pixel 7, and Pixel 8 series alongside the Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet.

The Pixel 5a, Pixel 8, and Pixel 8 Pro devices have the version AP11.231020.016; the rest come with the AP11.231020.016.A1 version. The update also carries the November 2023 security patch similar to the earlier released Android 14 QPR2 beta 1.

Per the changelog shared in the release notes, the latest Beta 1.1 includes the following fixes:

Fixed an issue that sometimes caused some apps to be removed after a system update was installed and then prevented those apps from being installed again. In other cases, affected apps couldn't be installed on a device even if they hadn't been installed previously.

Fixed other issues that were impacting system stability, performance, and connectivity.

Beta users on aforementioned Pixel devices will have to bear in mind that other known issues from the previous beta release are still ongoing in the new Beta 1.1 release. The eligible devices from the beta program are likely to get the over-the-air (OTA) update of Beta 1.1 from Google this week and can manually check the OTA update by heading to their Pixel's Settings > System > System update.

The previous Android 14 QPR2 Beta 1 release included fixing the package manager, which occasionally crashed while installing some apps. Another fix was for an issue that prevented users from submitting feedback on the Android Beta Feedback App. The previous release also fixed the 5G connectivity issues.

Ahead of the stable QPR1 release, which is likely set for December, QPR2 Beta preps Google's next major quarterly update, which will probably arrive in March.

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