In order to make controlling smart home access more safe and adaptable, Google has introduced new sharing features in version 3.33 of the Google Home app. Now that a new “Member” role has been added, users can provide trusted people—such as family members, roommates, and visitors—limited access to household devices without granting them complete administrative rights.
The Member position, which was initially made available to the public in December 2024, allows users to grant customized access to each individual they invite to their Google Home. Users can customize Member rights, including access to activity history (such camera or lock logs) and device and home settings, in addition to selecting between Admin and Member positions.
According to the company’s release, “sharing a smart home can get complicated, especially when you’re trying to tailor the experience to each guest.” “To help make this easier, we’ve made some changes to the Google Home app’s functionality for sharing a home and devices.”
Additional assistance for families with children is also included in the update. Users can now invite children under 13 to their home setup as Members for the first time, as long as they are a part of a Google Family group. When they return home from school, kids in this capacity can accomplish simple tasks like unlocking the front door, playing music, and turning lights on and off.
The update comes after Google’s developer conference earlier this year, which saw the addition of numerous new features to the Home App, such as occupation-based automation triggers and Picture-in-Picture functionality for watching Nest camera feeds on Google TVs.
However, Google’s unreleased AI-powered home automation creation tool, which the firm unveiled back in October 2023, is by far the most awaited Home feature.
According to Google, administrators still have complete control over the house, including presence detection, automation settings, and device management. In contrast, members only get the features that are available to them, which Google claims is a big improvement for families trying to strike a balance between convenience and security.
To add, manage, and remove people from the home, delete the house, add or remove devices, exchange devices and data with services, attach a subscription to the home, set up presence sensing, and more, administrators are the only ones with these rights.
Users are referred to the official Help Center for additional information on sharing a house in Google house.
