CONNECT WITH US
Tech

Tech

Google Home app brings battery-efficient widget, reduces gray device tiles

9to5Google logo

Published on

Add as a preferred source on Google
Google Home app brings battery-efficient widget, reduces gray device tiles

Abner Li | Sep 16 2026 - 1:40 pm PT 9 Comments

Besides Home MCP , Google today is also rolling out Home app (especially for the homescreen widget) and Gemini for Home voice assistant updates.

The Google Home widget has now been optimized to “pause background updates and polling whenever your phone’s screen is powered off, locked, or running a screensaver.” This helps save battery on your phone and connected cameras, while “ensuring your widgets refresh immediately the moment you unlock your phone.”

Meanwhile, Google has resolved an issue with device tiles for sensors, cameras, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. They could previously “appear grayed out after returning from device controller screens.” As such, you no longer have to reload the screen.

Smoother multi-account switching: If you have multiple accounts that you use with Google Home, switching between them is now more reliable with fewer “Home not found” errors and preference resets.

More reliable smart device setup: Addressed several setup and onboarding issues, including eliminating stalls during Wi-Fi pairing. This ensures a smoother, frustration-free onboarding journey when adding new smart devices to your home.

Smoother Google TV startup: Resolved a startup crash on Google TV devices, ensuring the Google Home experience launches reliably on your television.

More flexible in-app banners: Improved UI for triggering actions in announcement banners in the Google Home app.

Smoke alarm notifications: Rolling out improvements to smoke and carbon monoxide alarm notifications to show current device status in the Google Home app after an alarm has already been cleared.


Source link
Related Topics:Tech

Disclaimer

We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We TheMorningPulse.fyi want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It's possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.