Google Home ather appears it’s actually over-the-top smart home command center in a tiny package. A new Devices tab in the Google Home web app lets you directly control lights, locks, thermostats, plugs and more—all without your phone or speaking the name of your device. It’s a deceptively simple upgrade, but one that makes almost everything you do daily faster, and the home as a whole seem more manageable.
The true web control center
Joining Cameras and Automations, the new Devices tab is a one-stop shop for the basics. Devices are listed by the rooms you’ve established, matching the familiar layout you’re used to on mobile. A light or plug goes on and off with a click. Though we’re not fans of it, dragging on the light tile changes brightness. Thermostats offers plus and minus controls for instant tweaks to the temperature, with more settings stashed behind an overflow menu. Locks and plugs and cameras (if they work with. IActionResultContent) make meaningful appearances with context-aware controls to do something about them right away.
Everything is not perfect yet. Speakers, smart displays, and Chromecast devices may show up in the grid but can’t currently be controlled from the web interface. Google says additional device types and deeper controls are coming, and that’s because parity with the mobile app is the goal here. If you are Desk Life, that’s welcome news.
Why desktop control matters
Smart homes are meant to be interacted with in short spurts — turn on a light, unlock a door, nudge the heat — and that little bit of friction of lifting your phone is often enough to keep people from using the really advanced features. Putting those controls in a browser tab does away with that friction. Work is faster, and multiple people in the same household with shared computers now can get to their own stuff faster (as can anyone who just likes a big screen and a physical keyboard over the mobile UI.)
This trend also dovetails with the wider market. (About 20 percent own two or more, and when it comes to the average U.S. internet household, that number jumps to an average of 2.3 devices for households with more than one.) Average homes are adopting across brands, the research firm Parks Associates reported, with more than two in five U.S. internet households owning a smart home product from at least one brand. Now that Google Home is fluent in Matter and Thread, the web app acts as an agnostic dashboard for those mixed systems. The Connectivity Standards Alliance, which lead-sponsors Matter, has been adding supported categories of devices and energy features, helping to reduce the likelihood of lock-in and clarify control from its members.
How it fits into Google’s smart home strategy on display
Google’s path is clear: consolidate control, better automation and smarter assistance on top. The company has been rolling some of its AI models into Home to work on routines and natural-language commands — think “set the kitchen to dinner mode down and turn the thermostat to guests” in a single wheel — to make routine a breeze. A strong web console further reinforces the push by providing a visual, click-first track for those times when you can’t type or speak.
Hardware momentum helps. New and refreshed Nest products have been surfacing in the Home app, and Google has teased AI-powered assistants for upcoming speakers and displays. The more unified the control layer becomes — phone, speaker, web — the more chance people will develop habits they actually use.
What’s missing—and what’s next
There are still some power-user comic touches missing from the web app. There’s no color picker for lights yet, and media device control is the big missing piece. Although there’s most of the advanced camera stuff available, like timeline scrubbing and event searching, for some users the better experience is still on mobile. Why does it work? But the principles are in place: room organization, lightning fast actions, and matched consistency with the mobile mental model. Google has only sygnalled that more types of devices and controls are coming, and gestured towards fuller parity in the future.
But the new Devices tab does not appear to be fully available at least through Google Home’s Public Preview for the web, so you might not see it right away. It’s common for features that touch a broad array of third-party devices and standards to roll out in such a phased approach.
Proven benefits: energy, safety, convenience
Fast, centralized control has measurable upside. The research that Nest has released on its smart thermostat indicates that for the average household it lowers heating use by about 10–12% (and about 15% for cooling), priming for schedule and temperature adjustments from your desk increases the likelihood that you follow through. For peace of mind, the ability to lock a door, glance at a camera and verify the garage is closed without losing sight of a visitor is more than convenient — it’s necessary.
Small touches add up. Dim down all of your downstairs lights to 40 percent with two clicks, and who says you can’t save energy and atmosphere at the same time. A check of devices in each room makes it easy to tell when something has been left on. And for families assisting elderly relatives or running short-term rentals, a browser-based dashboard flattens the learning curve versus app-juggling on a phone.
The lesson here: Google Home on the web is evolving into a first-order controller, not just a decider view. With media controls still on the way, the new Devices tab leaves just a few inches between intention and action—a hallmark of good smart home software.