How to sign up for Google Home app Preview Program on Android
Google is preparing to open a “preview program” for the Home app on Android that would give early access to new features for your smart home – here’s how to sign up.
About APK Insight: In this APK Insight post, we have decompiled the latest version of an application that Google has uploaded to the Play Store. If we decompile these files (called APKs in the case of Android apps), we can see different lines of code within this hint to possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may not be perfect. However, we will try to enable those that are nearing completion to show you what they will look like should they ship. With that in mind, read on.
Google has offered a public preview program for its Chromecasts, Google Home speakers, and Nest Hub displays for years. For the past few years, this preview program has been the gateway for testing Google’s Fuchsia operating system, but it’s typically designed to test new features a few weeks before release.
It seems Google has plans to extend its preview program to the Google Home app itself. As shown below, the sign-up page tells you that the previewer will unlock “early features” in Google Home, but of course warns that these will likely still be buggy.
Request to try new Home app features before they’re made generally available
Share feedback if you have ideas or find problems. Your feedback can help improve the app.
Early features may have issues that affect how the app works. Google monitors these issues to fix them quickly.
Opt out at any time. You can switch to the regular version of the Home app at any time.
The way it’s worded, it sounds like Google is about to start allowing select people to download beta versions of the Google Home app from the Play Store. It’s interesting that Google would use a closed beta system for this app, considering some other apps – Android Auto, Google Messages, Play Services, and many more – are open beta to anyone brave enough to sign up – Offer tests.
The new preview program comes just weeks after it was announced that Google is launching a “Google Nest Trusted Tester Program” on Centercode to test a next-gen design for the Google Home app. It’s possible these two programs are one and the same, but the in-app sign-up flow doesn’t ask for any personal information, unlike Centercode.
As far as we can tell, Google probably only intends to make signups for this preview program accessible to a limited number of people. For the lucky few, it should appear somewhere on the top bar of the Google Home Android app.
However, if you want to try your hand at signing up, it’s actually surprisingly easy to manually access the Google Home App Preview program’s signup page. Simply tap the link below on your Android device and you will be taken straight to the login page. From there, tap Request Invitation to show your interest in becoming a tester. From there, it’s just a matter of whether or not Google accepts you into the program.
googlehome://settings/app-preview-program
Thanks to JEB Decompiler, which benefits some teardowns from APK Insight.
Dylan Roussel contributed to this article.
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