Google’s redesigned Home app is already accidentally rolling out, with Pixel tablet assets in tow

Google announced that a revamped Home app was in the works this week, and you’ll soon be able to sign up to join the beta. It looks like someone at the company pressed some buttons early, as someone already got the new app via a Play Store update, with a warning that it’s a build confidential internal information that is not intended to be shared with others. This gives us a first look at the new app in action.

One of our tipsters first reported receiving the app update after signing up to receive Google Home app previews using a workaround . Since the sign-up process they used doesn’t yet appear to be fully operational and intended for the public, it’s possible this resulted in our tipster receiving the internal version of the app, branded “dogfood” which Google uses to name internal test builds of apps. You can get this version of Home yourself from APK Mirror.

The new Home app is in a very early stage of development

Although the new interface may not be available to everyone, we have some images shared by our tipster, Android Police founder Artem Russakovskii and Esper.io Android expert Mishaal Rahman who were able to activate it. Just as Google teased, the new interface features Material Design 3 elements with new button shapes and a new bottom bar, although it looks like it doesn’t yet support the Material You theme based on your wallpaper.

Just as Google announced, the new interface revamps the way you navigate the app. The bottom bar now consists of five sections: Favorites, Devices, Automations, Activity, and Settings. It is possible to add a selection of your most used devices under Favorites, while you can see all the devices on your network in the Devices section. Under Automations, you can start your custom home and personal routines, and you can add any new automations you might need.

There is also a brand new debugging section in the settings which makes it very clear that this app is not for a public release. In it, it is possible to modify some variables for the tests, such as your country and the cloud environment you are using.

The new interface already looks polished and promising, but it’s clear that this is an early version. It is not yet possible to reorganize favorites and many devices are no longer correctly recognized. For example, a Nest Hub Max is only recognized as a display for us, but not as a camera. When trying to access the camera history for any device or for the whole house, the loading process is extremely slow from oldest to newest. Nest events also don’t offer audio. If you want to try this app first, be prepared to upgrade to a more stable version after playing around with it a bit.

Teardown shows Pixel tablet stand and more

There are some more interesting information in the app. It already has a workflow for setting up Matter devices, but given that the consortium just released Matter version 1.0, there’s probably no device you own and are actually setting up that supports Matter.

Mishaal Rahman was also able to find and activate a “Configure your dock” workflow in the new app. Based on the strings describing the feature, it’s clear that this is a way to set up the Google Pixel tablet teased during Google I/O. Although we’ve already seen magnetic connectors on the back of the device, this confirms that the Pixel tablet will act as a smart home hub. The description of the setup process further reads, “Dim the lights with your voice, enjoy hands-free controls, and customize your tablet to your liking.”

There are some other interesting findings in another quick teardown performed by Android expert Mishaal Rahman and shared with us. While we don’t know when these first appeared, some channels say Google is finally readying the option to connect Nest Audio speakers to Chromecast with Google TV, letting you enjoy higher quality sound when watching your favorite shows.

Your TV audio will stream from the connected speaker, and you can control the volume with your Chromecast remote.

Default speaker set

Select audio output

Managed in your TV settings

Default TV

Plus, the app lays the groundwork for the new Google Nest Wifi router. The company is working on adding a 160 MHz channel toggle for better performance when using the 5 GHz frequency.

Some devices are not compatible and may exhibit lower performance. %1$s.

Use the 160 MHz channel for maximum performance on 5 GHz

The redesign is not available for everyone on the new version

Some people report that the redesign only appeared to them after they force quit the app and then reopen it. This can be achieved by pressing and holding the Home icon on your home screen, selecting the i button (Where Application Information), then choosing Force stop. Unfortunately, the trick no longer seems to work. Many people who have updated to the new version are stuck with the old interface. It’s possible that Google has already noticed the accidental rollout and is preventing the switch to the new interface via a server-side modification to the APK.

Thank you: Anthony and Armando