Your day will change depending on the time and say your morning, afternoon or evening for example. It will show you upcoming events and reminders, along with Google’s cards for what you need. For example, in the morning, it will display the weather report of the day, but at night, it will give you another day forecast instead. It will also provide speed dials for turning on or off your connected devices, as well as for your favorite contacts you can set up.
The Home Control page provides an overview of all the gadgets you’ve connected through the Google Home app. Each device gets its own card that you tap to turn something on or off. Google said it wants more predictions in its approach here, and will try to prioritize what you think you’re looking for.
Likewise, Media Sc will give you screen controls for music and videos playing around your home. In a demo, product manager Mert Topku showed Engage how his son was playing a minicraft soundtrack on his bathroom speaker while Tokku was in another room with his smart display. This page shows personalized recommendations for music and what you like.
The Communications tab provides options for the duo to call your favorite contacts, while searching for articles and videos you like. While it may seem strange to introduce more touch-based interactions on voice-centric products, Google believes that updates can help smart displays move forward.
Currently, we are in the Internet phase of smart displays, according to Jack Kravzik, Director of Product Management. “It was really novel and exciting and promised all this, but it wasn’t completely unlocked.”
It’s not just a new touch interface that can make Google’s smart display more useful. When the company added meet and zoom integration, it made these devices more supportive for conference calls from home. Now, Google lets users add up to five Meet accounts so they can not only share with other members of the household but also keep both work and personal profiles on one display. When you’re also taking these calls, you’ll soon be able to choose a four-person grid layout and pinch and zoom to see the details in your presentation. Most of these features will come for individual accounts in the next few days, although the grid and pinch-to-zoom is set for later this year.
After all, Google knows that people use smart displays as high-tech alarm clocks in their bedroom (especially without a built-in camera) and devices should be as natural as possible in those circumstances. The company is introducing a new dark theme that will help blend these bright screens into the background at night while still offering touch access. You can set this to automatically adjust based on ambient light or sunset and sunrise schedules.
For those who just want to play with subtle background noise, Google is adding new comfortable sounds to the smart display. You can request an assistant to select one or for specifications such as rain, for example, and set a sleep timer to run out of time or just play overnight. When it’s time to wake up, you can use the new Sunrise Alarm feature to slowly brighten the display 30 minutes before your morning timer.
The new visual interface and features will be rolled out to all Google Assistant smart displays in the next few days (along with some specialized tools for later releases). As the industry continues to find out how to make full use of these devices, Google’s recent updates provide an interesting look at what the future holds.
