Pixel Tablet
Google has updated its smart home platform with new software features and widgets that make home management easier and quicker.
The biggest addition is an improved favorites widget. This can echo the favorites tab in the Google Home app or be customised for a more useful layout that a widget demands. depending on your own preferences, this widget can go full screen if required, shrinking right down to a single line if that’s all you need.
The widget features a mix of direct actions (such as turning lights on and off) or shortcuts that take you to the relevant page of the Google Home app.
Smartwatch owners running Wear OS have two new options. The first is a new tile, filling the watch face with shortcut icons to open the full app to control the desired feature. Given the tight space on a smartwatch display, this is restricted to icons, but it puts them all within a swipe and a tap. If you need faster access, new complications have been added that allow you to place a single shortcut directly on your clock face.
Finally, the Pixel Tablet can now pick up and act on Doorbell Alerts, and the Google Home app offers more powerful software options.
Crucially, your Pixel Tablet must be locked and docked on the charging speaker dock that came with the original tablet for full functionality—an option that reflects Google’s pitch of the Pixel Tablet as a home automation centre.
Google’s Pixel Tablet
The new widgets are part of the Google Home Public Preview and will be available widley later in the year; the new Google Wear app is publicly available now.