Google Home Panel and AI Art Coming to All Google TV Devices

Good news, everyone. If you read our Google TV Streamer review and found yourself longingly eyeing the new smart home panel — also known as the Google Home panel — or the new AI-generated ambient graphics, those are on their way to other Google TV devices. That was a given, since Google wouldn’t keep it exclusive to its latest streaming hardware. But it’s always nice to have confirmation.

Here’s the thing: If your smart device is Google Home-enabled, you should be able to access it through the Google Home dashboard on Google TV. In my house, I have a few Nest cameras, a Nest doorbell, and a bunch of Philips Hue and Govee lights. And they all show up in the Google Home dashboard, with my favorites getting priority.

It’s all pretty straightforward, though there are a few minor hiccups. For example, if the camera is off, you’ll just see a blank camera. That’s not particularly useful (although at least it tells you the camera is off), since you can’t turn it on from Google TV. You’ll need your phone or tablet, or the Google Home web interface, to turn the camera on.

Control your lighting from the main panel on your Google TV Streamer. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

Doorbell notifications are optional — you’ll select this option when you first set up the Google TV Dashboard, and my first experience with Google TV Streamer showed a fairly significant delay between when someone rings the doorbell and when the notification appears on screen. The image was also squeezed into a different aspect ratio.

The lights and air conditioning worked exactly as I expected. It was easy to turn appliances on and off, raise and lower the air conditioning with the remote.

Overall, this is definitely a good addition that every owner of a Google TV device and other smart accessories should look forward to.

AI-generated ambient art is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of pulling the perfect photo from Google Photos, you can ask Google’s AI to generate your own art, much like Amazon Fire TV has done on its top-of-the-line devices.

Custom AI graphics section in the new Ambient Mode on Google TV Streamer. — Custom AI graphics section in the new Ambient Mode on the Google TV Streamer. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

You can create a graphic entirely based on your own ideas, or you can use Google’s help, which will provide a Mad Libs-style prompt where you can fill in the gaps with things you’d like to see.

This tool is a lot of fun to play around with, but its usefulness really depends on how much time you enjoy spending creating this type of stuff.