Confusing app
I’m being generous giving it 3 stars. You get this app only if you also have google devices to control in your home. As this is Google’s big entry into your home, and out of the sphere of your computer/ phone/ tablet, you would think they would spend more time making it easy to setup and use. I know I’ve become familiar with the ease of use and setup with Apple products, but rarely have I ever had so much difficulty like I have experienced with this app, trying to do the simplest of functions.
The app is confusing to use, with the main difficulty coming from the difficultly in adding services. The process of going into the app, and then going through cards to add other apps is frustrating. There is no easy search option, which is a glaring omission from google. The process could easily be simplified, but instead they bury everything in a confusing string of menus. Why not a simple option, connect services, and then an alphabetical list, with the ability to search?
The lack of supported services is also frustrating, but I’m not holding it against them just yet, as their entry into this realm is still relatively new, and they appear to be adding more services, although not as quickly as I would like.
The app is pretty stable, although it has crashed once on me.
I got the app to go with my Google Home mini, chromecast, nest thermostat and cameras. After avoiding Google products for a while, after doing some serious research I decided to give them a try. Using the Google Home mini has worked pretty well, and I don’t have to go into the app too often, but when I do, I find it very frustrating to do what should be a relatively easy task.
I really like what they have done with nest. Great, easy to use app, and probably the best designed products in their categories. I can overlook the lack of HomeKit support because everything is so far superior to the competition.
I liked the idea of the Amazon echo, but the design of their devices (all of them) could not be overlooked. When google came out with the home mini, I thought the price was right even with adding a chromecast, that I would forgo my reservations of sending all my data to Google.
Setting up the chromecast and the home Mini were easy enough. It did take the chromecast over 2 hrs to update over 300 Mbps internet 5 feet away from my 802.11 ac router, but once it finished it was straight forward enough.
Getting the Home mini setup was also reasonably easy. Once it came to the Google Home app it became a little frustrating. Adding my nest devices was more difficult than it should have been, and connecting Netflix seemed much more involved than it needed to be.
I would like to see Google solve these issues, and add support for Hulu, HBO Go, Tidal, and Showtime. Also when you add support for a service, you can easily have a message display at the top of the app the first time it is opened saying we have added support for the following services. Would you like to connect to any of them now? This would make it easy for users to add newly supported services, and also assures users that google is adding support for more services, and also allows you to see other services you may want to subscribe to.
Second Hand Smoke about
Google Home, v1.25.1223