Google is preparing to open a “preview program” for the Home app on Android, which will give early access to new features for your smart home — and here’s how to sign up.
About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we have unpacked the latest version of an app that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APK files, in the case of Android apps), we can see different lines of code within this hint in possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ship these features at all, and our interpretation of what they are may be incomplete. We will try to enable those who are about to finish, however, to show you what they would look like if they did charge. With that in mind, keep reading.
For years now, Google has offered a public preview program for Chromecasts, Google Home speakers, and Nest Hub displays. In recent years, this preview program has been the gateway to testing the Google Fuchsia operating system, but it’s usually intended to test new features a few weeks before release.
It appears Google has plans to extend its preview program to the Google Home app itself. As shown below, the registration page tells you that the preview program will open “early features” in the Google home page but of course warns that these features will likely still be riddled with bugs.
Ask to try out new Home app features before they are widely available
Share your comments if you have ideas or find problems. Your feedback can help improve the app.
Old features may have issues that affect how the app works. Google monitors these issues to quickly fix them.
withdraw at any time. You can always switch to the regular version of the Home app.
From the way it’s phrased, it looks like Google will start letting select people download trial versions of the Google Home app from the Play Store. It’s interesting that Google is using a closed beta system for this app, considering quite a few other apps – Android Auto, Google Messages, Play Services and many more – offer open beta testing for anyone brave enough to sign up.
The new preview program appears a few weeks after it was discovered that Google was starting a “Google Nest Trusted Tester” on Centercode, which aims to test Next generation design for the Google Home app. These two programs are likely similar, but the in-app subscription flow doesn’t ask for any personal details other than those in Centercode.
From what we can tell, it’s possible that Google only intends to sign up for this preview program to be available to a limited number of people. For the lucky few, it should appear somewhere in the top bar of the Google Home app for Android.
However, if you want to try your luck in registering, it is very easy to manually access the registration page of the Google Home App Preview Program. Simply click on the link below from your Android device, and you will be taken directly to the registration page. From there, click Request Invitation to show your interest in being a tester. From there, it just comes down to whether or not Google will accept you into the program.
googlehome://settings/app preview program
thanks for the JEB Decompilerwhich some APK Insight disassemblers take advantage of.
Dylan Russell Contribute to this article.
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