Stephen Schenck / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- Google’s sharing its latest suite of smart home improvements, and they include a ton of updates for the company’s hardware.
- New software releases target everything from Nest Wifi routers to Chromecast streamers.
- The majority of the updates are looking to address specific bugs.
Google Home can’t seem to go more than a couple weeks between reports of its latest smart-home-breaking bug — and if that’s all you see, it can be easy to get a little frustrated with it. But Google’s got a team of talented developers working tirelessly on dozens upon dozen of Home upgrades, and today the company’s sharing a massive list of everything it just pushed out to users and their devices.
Google’s latest set of Home updates is positively expansive, covering everything from Gemini, to cameras, to speakers — and more. Right now we want to focus on smart home hardware in particular.
Get your smart home online with the help of Nest Wifi? Google’s got some fresh updates headed out to both the Nest Wifi and the newer Wifi Pro. In addition to the standard suite of stability tweaks and bugfixes, Google highlights a few specific upgrades, like better handling of DNS requests when one server can’t be reached, and improved mesh performance.
We’ve also got some new firmware for both the HD and 4K versions of the Chromecast with Google TV, delivering fixes and updating them to the August 2026 security patch level.
Joe Maring / Android Authority
Between the Google Home Speaker, Nest Audio, and Nest Mini, plenty of us have at least one Google smart speaker in our homes, and the company’s got quite a few new tricks it’s bringing this hardware. For people just getting started, Google’s fixing issues with Wi-Fi 7 and WPA3. And then during playback, we’re getting upgrades promising smoother streaming performance and better volume controls. Devices should show up faster when you’re looking to cast some tunes, and Google’s also fixing a ton of bugs for issues with Bluetooth connectivity, Google Meet calls, and vanishing speaker groups.
Finally, let’s take a look at cameras. Google’s targeting the Nest Cam Indoor (1st gen), Nest Cam Outdoor (1st gen), Nest Doorbell (wired, 1st gen / Nest Hello), Nest Cam IQ Indoor, and Nest Cam IQ Outdoor with these latest updates. For the older Nest Cams, Google’s got a fix for excessively slow transitions between regular and night mode. The Doorbell should stay in sync more consistently and avoid unexpected resets. And Cam IQ status lights are getting a small fix. For all models, Google’s making some tweaks to help with Wi-Fi stability.
That’s a whole lot of updates, targeting a wide swath of smart home hardware. Make sure all your devices are powered and online to ensure that they’re getting access to Google’s upgrades as soon as possible.
