A raft of improvements are coming for your Google smart speaker with a screen
Your Google Smart Display is about to get a mother load of new features including a dark mode and more personalized pages for getting to the info you want displayed quicker.
Landing on native speakers such as the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max as well as third-party Smart Displays from the likes of Lenovo, JBL or LG, Google states that the improvements will help to improve devices it sees as “increasingly becoming a hub that entertains and connects the whole home and whole family.”
Smart speakers with displays have become a popular new command center for the connected house.
Amazon kicked off the race with its Echo Show back in 2017, and Google first followed suit but with a different strategy: third-party manufacturers would build many of what Google itself calls “Smart Displays” – and Google would provide the software – a similar approach to what has made Android such a success on smartphones.
Dark mode, which changes the color scheme of the interface to reduce light emission, and multiple accounts on Google Assistant Smart Displays are the highlights of the update – which are rolling out now – but Google has also highlighted its favorite new things coming to Smart Displays, including:
- Your morning page: Described as a “new visual experience to jumpstart your day.” On this new tab you’ll get an overview useful stuff like reminders, news headlines, weather forecasts and calendar entries. ‘Your morning’ evolves to ‘Your afternoon’ and ‘Your evening’ as the day goes on.
- Media page: Video, podcast and music suggestions from the likes of Disney+, Netflix, YouTube TV and Spotify.
- Home control page: A snapshot of your smart home devices so you can control them with a tap.
- Communicate page: Jump into Zoom, Duo and other video calls, or send messages from your Google account.
- Discover page: Tips and tricks of things to try out on your Smart Display.
- Sunrise Alarm: The brightness of the screen will gradually increase from half-hour before your alarm goes off, so you wake up a bit more naturally.
