Google details Home app 'Member' role with limited access, support for children

2 days ago 5

The Google Home app is adding a new form of access to your home, with a “Member” role now broadly available with more customization and access limits, as well as support for a child’s account.

Detailed on the Nest Community blog, the Google Home app has now made its “Member” role widely available as a part of the v3.33 update that first debuted earlier this month. The same update also made significant improvements to Nest video history scrubbing.

The “Member” role in Google Home is designed to offer access to your home, but with limits on what you can and cannot do.

Google says:

With Google Home app 3.33, you can share access to your home safely and efficiently with various family members, roommates, and guests. With the new Member role you can add those you trust, without giving anyone more control than they need.

By default, this new role only allows invited users to use devices. They won’t be able to add new devices, edit existing ones, or make any other tweaks outside of general controls such as on/off or viewing a live feed from a Nest camera.

Additional permissions can be added, including the ability to see “Activity” including camera history, as well as accessing key settings. But, even with those permissions, there are still a lot of functions that these users cannot access at all, as Google details:

Permission	Access Level
Permission	Admin	Member
Add, manage, and remove people	✔
Delete the home	✔
Add and remove devices	✔
Share devices and data with partner services	✔
Link a subscription to the home	✔
Set up or manage presence sensing for the home or shared devices	✔
Full device control and device settings	✔	Only with Settings access
Manage home-wide settings (household automations, home address, Nest Wifi device network and features, Nest Aware and Nest Renew features)	✔	Only with Settings access
Use the home’s devices in the Nest app	✔
Check device and home-wide history (camera, lock, Nest Wifi, home presence history)	✔	Only with Activity access
Check or manage camera clip-lending for devices in the home	✔
Deletion of any history in the home	✔
Basic device controls (ex. live view of cameras)	✔	✔
Personal settingsAssistant features like Voice and Face MatchSharing linked media servicesManaging personal presence	✔	✔

Beyond that, Google says this new “Member” role in the Home app will allow children to be added to a home. Google accounts for those under the age of 13 will be eligible to be added to a home with this role, but only if they’re a part of your family group.

For the first time, you also can allow your child to use the Google Home app to help turn on and off lights, control music, and unlock the door when they get home from school. To add a child under the age of 13 (or the applicable age in your country) to your home, they must be part of your Google family group and they only can join your home as a Member.