Quietly, and without ceremony, version 2.28 of the Google Home app has appeared on the Play Store, carrying a new way for the house itself to guess whether anyone is inside it. Rather than waiting for a person to tap a button or set a schedule, the app now reads the rhythm of devices in use and infers occupancy, so that the ordinary act of coming and going can quietly set lights and routines in motion. It arrives in the weeks before Google is expected to unveil a new speaker, and it reminds us how the smart home slowly shifts from something we command toward something that attends to our prese
Google Home App 2.28 Adds AI-Based Presence Detection and Smarter Routines
The app guesses who is home by watching what the devices are doing
Mark
So what's actually new in this update? It sounds like a lot of small things.
Mimi
The headline is presence sensing. The app uses AI and device activity to guess whether anyone is home, and that feeds Home and Away routines.
Mark
Why does that matter for someone with a few smart bulbs?
Mimi
Routines become easier to trigger. Lights on or off based on whether the house is occupied, without you tapping anything.
Luke
I'd slow down on "AI." The report says the app looks at device activity to decide if someone's nearby. It doesn't say what signals count, or how accurate it is.
Mimi
Fair. The only accuracy claim is that it should improve as more devices grant location permissions.
Mark
And that's a prediction, not a measurement?
Luke
Right. No test results, no figures. It's an expectation.
Mark
What about the other additions?
Mimi
New notification categories for Calls & messages, Account updates, and People & devices. Plus OnHub network management, 30 days of speed test history, and Meet invites from the Home feed.
Luke
Also worth noting Google hasn't announced any of this. It's a Play Store release, and it's rolling out incrementally, so not everyone has it yet.
Mark
And the Android TV hint?
Luke
That's all we have: a hint. No detail on what changes, so I wouldn't read anything into it yet.
Der Puls
- A silent update has landed on the Play Store with no announcement from Google, leaving users to discover its changes on their own.
- The new presence sensing makes the app guess whether anyone is home by reading device activity, which raises the stakes for routines that depend on that guess.
- Home and Away routines gain new triggers, so lights and actions can respond to arrivals and departures without manual setup.
- Accuracy is still developing, since it depends on more devices granting location permissions over time.
- Notification categories, OnHub network controls, and Meet invites add practical polish, while Android TV hints hint at changes still unexplained.
Quietly, and without ceremony, version 2.28 of the Google Home app has appeared on the Play Store, carrying a new way for the house itself to guess whether anyone is inside it. Rather than waiting for a person to tap a button or set a schedule, the app now reads the rhythm of devices in use and infers occupancy, so that the ordinary act of coming and going can quietly set lights and routines in motion. It arrives in the weeks before Google is expected to unveil a new speaker, and it reminds us how the smart home slowly shifts from something we command toward something that attends to our presence, and sometimes misjudges it.
Version 2.28 of the Google Home app has shown up on the Play Store without any announcement from Google. It arrives just before the company is expected to reveal a new smart speaker, and it brings a change in how the app understands the household.
The central addition is presence sensing. According to Android Community, the app now uses AI to estimate whether people are home by watching activity across the devices in the house. If the devices are in use, someone is likely nearby, and the app can act on that conclusion.
The result shows up in routines. New activities make it easier to link Home and Away settings to whether the house is occupied, so lights might switch on as someone arrives or off as they leave. The system should grow more accurate as more devices grant location permissions.
The update also brings finer notification controls, with separate toggles for Calls & messages, Account updates, and People & devices. It adds network management for OnHub routers, a 30-day history of speed tests, and the ability to invite people to Meet calls from the Home feed. Hints about Android TV appear too, though their nature is not described.
The rollout is gradual, so not every user will see 2.28 at once, and the APK is available on APK Mirror for those who do not want to wait. Until Google says more, the speaker reveal and any Android TV changes will be the signals to watch.
Version 2.28 of the Google Home app is now on the Google Play Store, and it arrived without any announcement from Google. The update turns up just before the company is expected to reveal a new smart speaker, and it carries a feature that changes how the app decides whether anyone is home.
That feature is presence sensing. According to the report from Android Community, the app uses AI to work out whether people are at home, and it does so by looking at activity across the devices in the house. The idea is that if devices are being used, someone is probably nearby, and the app can act on that inference.
The practical payoff is in routines, the automated sequences that Home and Away settings trigger. The update adds support for new activities that can be used when setting up those routines, which makes it easier to tie smart home actions to whether the house is occupied. The simplest example is turning the lights on or off as people arrive or leave.
Accuracy is expected to improve over time. As more devices grant location permissions, the app should get better at predicting when a routine ought to start. The report frames this as a combination of the new presence sensing and wider permission coverage, rather than one change on its own.
The update also adds notification controls. There are now new categories that can be switched on or off individually: Calls & messages, Account updates, and People & devices. For households that receive a steady stream of alerts from many devices, that gives finer control over what reaches the phone.
Other additions are more modest. The app now supports network management for OnHub, Google's router line, and it keeps a history of network speed tests going back 30 days. Google Meet also gets some attention: during video calls, users can invite other people directly from the Home feed.
The update also contains hints about coming changes to Android TV, though the report does not say what those changes are. The Home app remains the main tool for controlling devices and managing how they interact with one another.
The rollout is incremental, so not everyone will see 2.28 at once. Readers who do not want to wait can find the APK on APK Mirror. With no official word from Google, the next signals to watch are the expected speaker reveal and whether the Android TV hints turn into visible features.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
With more devices granting location permissions, the app should become more accurate at predicting when routines start.— Android Community report on Google Home 2.28
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