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Earlier this year, the Google Home app received a redesigned Wifi section that included more of the old Wifi app’s tricks. Since Google was busy phasing it out in favor o the all-in-one experience for all of the smart tech in your home, this made sense. The ability to prioritize a connection so that it receives more bandwidth where you’d want to use a device for gaming, or the ability to troubleshoot network issues among others were all tossed in for good measure.
Now, in version 2.43 of the app, the option to test your device’s wireless connection speed is being adopted. To try this out for yourself, just visit the Wifi section, select ‘Devices’, choose any device like your TV, Nest Audio, Camera, etc., and then tap the ‘Info’ tab. Scrolling to the bottom will reveal a ‘Check device speed’ option that’s recently been placed there. Tapping it will pull up the familiar device speed test animation where you’ll await your results!
An option to ‘Check all speeds’ also exists here, and you can tap that too, but if you’re just trying to diagnose a specific device, you’ll want to stick to the former initially. Honestly, this is a feature I’ve sorely missed when the company decided to transition users completely over to Home from the Google Wifi app.
Anyway, once you do get said results, they will be displayed directly above the connection speed test buttons. Your ‘Last tested’ date will appear along with the device’s Mbps and the Internet speed as well. ISP access preferences are also being added according to 9to5Google’s APK Insights report on this app update. This would allow your ISP to “access and manage your Wifi network and any Google Wifi or Nest Wifi router or point in your network (including ones added later to the network or ones not obtained from your ISP”.
While not yet rolled out, this latter feature would help providers troubleshoot issues on behalf of the user, but access can be revoked if you wish from the Home app. I can see how many more technical homeowners would prefer to keep their ISP’s hands out of their business since that’s why they got a Google or Nest Wifi to begin with.
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