Back in September, the Home app lost the ability to trigger Assistant Routines. Google Home 2.31 today returns that capability, while there’s a big revamp to media controls.
A few weeks ago, Google rolled out a new fullscreen Routines page that opened after tapping the purple shortcut at the top of the Home app. “Personal Routines” can be viewed and customized, while new ones can be created but nothing else.
Version 2.31 today adds a play button to the right of every listed Routine. At the very bottom of the list is “Start Your Routines On,” with users able to select a “default speaker for routines that contain actions that execute on speakers.”
The default is “this device,” or your phone, with Smart Displays, speakers, and pairs all listed. Google Home remembers your last selection for faster invocations.
Next up in this release is a complete redesign of Media controls in the Google Home app. Instead of a carousel of tall cards, there is now a list of what’s playing. The scrubber, play/pause, rewind/forward, and volume are up first, while the list of “Playing on,” which allows for spontaneous speaker group creation, is always listed. This is a much more efficient UI for media controls.
Elsewhere, Wifi settings in Google Home 2.31 adds a new “Preferred activities” menu where Gaming/Stadia is included. The fact this is a menu instead of just a toggle suggests Google could be adding more device prioritization options going forward.
Version 2.31 of the Google Home app is rolling out now on the Play Store.
More about Google Home:
- [Update: Now available] Google Home app cleans up Nest Hub/Max settings in redesign
- Google Home 2.30 adds support for new Nest Thermostat
- [Update: Rolling out] Google Home app gains Home & Away Routines, presence sensing
Author: Abner Li
Source: 9TO5Google
