Google Home Removes Another Popular Feature
▼ Summary
– Google has removed the “Call Home” feature from the Google Home app, which allowed users to call their smart displays from their phones.
– The feature’s disappearance aligns with a recent app redesign and deeper Gemini integration, as noted by a Reddit user.
– This feature, originally introduced via Duo and later Meet, never gained widespread popularity due to language restrictions and limited Google support for smart displays.
– An alternative remains to call other users via Google Meet, but it requires their accounts to be separately added to the smart display.
– The removal may inconvenience some users, like those calling family without personal phones, and reflects a broader pattern of unmet expectations in Google’s smart home overhaul.
Google has quietly discontinued a specific feature within its Google Home app, removing the ability for users to directly call their own smart displays from their smartphones. This change, which follows a recent app redesign, eliminates the convenient “Call Home” button that was previously available. The move signals a continued shift in Google’s strategy for its smart home ecosystem and communication services.
The feature, originally introduced in 2018 using Google Duo, allowed individuals to initiate a video or audio call to a Google Nest Hub or other compatible smart display using the same Google account. It provided a simple way to check in, especially useful for contacting family members like children or seniors who might not have a personal mobile device. A user on Reddit recently highlighted that the button, once located above the Broadcast function, has now vanished from the app’s interface.
This disappearance aligns with the broader transition from Duo to Google Meet as the company’s primary video calling platform. Google has also updated its official support documentation, removing references to the Call Home functionality, which further confirms the feature’s deprecation. An archived version of the support page still shows the old instructions, but the current live page does not.
For those who still wish to call a device in their home, an alternative method exists, though it is less straightforward. Users can place a call through Google Meet or by using a designated Household contact. This alternative requires that the recipient’s Google account also be added to the smart display, adding an extra step that wasn’t necessary with the old “Call Home” feature. This change introduces inconvenience for the specific use case of quickly calling a shared household device.
The original feature’s adoption was likely hampered by several factors, including its limitation to devices set to US English. Combined with Google’s varying levels of investment in its smart display hardware over the years, the tool never achieved widespread popularity. Its removal may therefore affect only a niche group of users. However, it contributes to a perception that Google’s ongoing overhaul of its Home platform and assistant services sometimes results in the loss of practical, if underutilized, capabilities rather than a seamless enhancement of the user experience.
(Source: Android Authority)
