An APK teardown of the latest update to begin rolling out to the Google Home application for Android has been undertaken, showing off the new app features and hinting at features to come. In this case, some of the snippets of code point to support for Google’s Home Max connected, assistant-enabled speaker. That device has recently been speculated to have hit the FCC, after being officially announced earlier this year. So at least some of those future features found with this particular teardown are all but guaranteed. Before jumping into that, however, the new update to version 1.26 of the Google Home app does include a couple of new features. Namely, the search functionality has been improved and there is now a tool for controlling audio mix during playback. So, now users can easily adjust bass and treble levels through a given device’s settings menu. That can be accessed by tapping ‘devices’ in the Google Home application’s menu and then tapping the three-dot menu on a connected device to access that device’s individual settings. The equalizer settings can be found under the “device info” heading.
Meanwhile, setup and settings for Google Home Max are now included in the application itself, hidden in the code of the new update. So the app should be ready to go once that device begins shipping to consumers. The addition also includes code associated with Google Home Max features that apply solely to that device, such as the device’s ability to automatically adjust the equalization settings based on its surroundings and the acoustics of the room – as well as the position it has been set at within the room. The settings for that will apparently be found under the “Room EQ” menu, once the device launches. Another portion of code also seems to suggest that the system will be able to diagnose at least some problems that could arise with Room EQ and the Home Max speaker or its associated hardware. Those run from system recognition of problems with onboard microphones and a reminder that the Room EQ feature only works when the speaker is in either upright or horizontal orientation but not when it is tilted or upside down. The Google Home Max feature for extending play over two paired speakers for a more stereo-rich sound appears to be headed to all Google Home-branded speakers. Pairing will also enable further room-balancing equalization, with the addition of balance controls to the user interface when speakers are paired up.
It bears repeating that some of these features could end up being dropped by Google or could be reworked completely before their eventual release. However, it certainly looks as though the company is getting serious about the quality of sound and configuration options of the Google Home experience. Aside from those changes to the APK, the source’s teardown also discovered what looks like a placeholder for a new device, though there really isn’t enough information there to speculate as to what that might be. Finally, there is a boolean referenced within the APK that appears to point to a dedicated display layout for tablets.
