An important new feature in development for Android 15 will soon allow the millions of users equipped with the Google operating system to perfect the management of their smart home: the innovation is already included in the beta 3 version, already available on some electronic devices.
How can you interact with the “intelligent” devices in your home? Thanks to “Home Controls”literally “Home Controls”, a feature capable of transforming smartphones and tablets into real control panels: through them it will be possible for the user equipped with Android 15 to manage the electronic devices of the home network, thus communicating with lights , thermostats, cameras or speakers.
The function, inserted inside the section Screensaverstherefore allows you to use mobile phones and tablets equipped with the operating system as if they were dashboards after having connected them to the power supply, whether it is a charger or a dock. It should be underlined that this is not a benefit granted only to owners of Google Pixel series products, but a function available for all models with “Screensaver” provided they are obviously updated to Android 15.
By enabling Screen Saver, electronic devices equipped with this operating system show the main Google Home screen, displaying the user’s favorite categories and devices at the top, so as to allow quick control via a sort of Always-on-Display dedicated, and this even when the device is inactive.
Given its characteristics, it seems likely that in the future the functionality in question will be connected to other services, such as Smart Things. In order to have a more complete vision of the potential of the application, we will have to wait for the definitive release of Android 15, after the changes made by the manufacturers.
Remaining in the same field, within the beta version of Google Home there is a clear intention to make the functions dedicated to the control of smart homes available on Chromecast with Google TV. The GH “Home Preview” panel appears in the application’s quick settings and essentially coincides with the “Favorites” tab, allowing the user to manage lights, cameras, thermostats, speakers and smart sockets, i.e. everything that has been inserted among the app favourites.
The novelty, at least for now, has been made available exclusively to some customers who are part of the Preview program
public on Google Home and on Chromecast with Google TV, awaiting more widespread distribution. You can access the program by opening Google Home, selecting “Settings” and choosing the Public Preview item.