My Chromecast got a second life with this free upgrade

Summary

Google Home Panel provides convenient smart home control through TV
Device compatibility affects using the Home Panel feature fully
Access to Home Panel features may require switching ecosystems or devices

I don’t have a lot in the way of a smart home aside from some lights and my thermostat, but I appreciate how seamless everything is. I can easily speak into my Google Home Mini and raise the temperature of my thermostat or turn off my bedroom lights in a matter of seconds. The hardest part of the process is setting everything up in the Google Home app, but once that’s done it’s very easy.

The downside to this is I need a Google Home device in every room to control everything, and that’s something I’m not willing to do. Currently, I have a Mini in my bedroom and a Nest Hub in my kitchen. These do exactly what I need them to do, but again, I have the problem of having to be in the room to use them. This is why the Google Home Panel update that arrived on my aging Sony X90J TV for free is a total shock. I don’t have to talk to anything or even get up from my couch to check anything. Everything is available on my TV, and it’s something I didn’t know I needed until I had it.

Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen)

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Display: 7-inch touchscreen, 1024 x 600 pixels
Sound: Full-range speaker, 3 mics
Colors: Chalk, Charcoal, Sand, Mist
Dimensions: 120.4 x 177.4 x 69.5mm, 558g

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Google Home Panel is the future I want

This is what I’m talking about

I’ll admit, I didn’t know what the Home Panel was because I don’t have a Google TV Streamer. The update caught me by surprise, and I was lucky to see it happening on my TV before switching over to my Apple TV 4K. I decided to give the Home Panel a look to see what the fuss was about, and I was blown away. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t have a robust smart home complete with security cameras and doorbells, so I can’t take full advantage of what’s on display. What I can do is easily change the temperature of my home from my TV instead of having to get up and do it myself. Everything’s available with just a few button presses, and I can’t find much to complain about considering I didn’t expect this update to hit my years-old TV in the first place. This ease of use is great in a smart home, and it has me excited about the future.

I have slowly been adding to my smart home, but things like the Home Panel could be the jolt I need to speed up the process of building it. I never thought about picking up security cameras, but now I’m interested in doing it just so I can view them on my TV. The main downside to the Home Panel, at least for me specifically, is that I don’t use the Google TV Streamer or its wider ecosystem. While it integrates directly with my TV, I don’t use my smart TV UI either. I saw the update arrived on older Google Chromecast devices too, but I just replaced it in my bedroom. After testing out the new update on my TV, I dug out my old Chromecast 4K right away and got it plugged into an old computer monitor. While it’s not replacing my Apple TV, the Home Panel update effectively gave my Chromecast another lease on life, which is something I didn’t think would happen.

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A Google TV Streamer might be in my house in the near future

It comes down to what you value

When I was looking for a replacement streaming device in my bedroom, I decided to skip the Google TV Streamer. It wasn’t necessarily anything Google did wrong, but there wasn’t anything about the Streamer that got me excited. Of course, a lot of that was self-inflicted because I had no idea about the Home Panel support and what that meant. If I had to do it again, I’d have to strongly weigh my options. The Roku Ultra, the device I ultimately went with, is something I love, and I’m not sure if the Google TV Streamer is a better option.

I don’t have to talk to anything or even get up from my couch to check anything. Everything is available on my TV, and it’s something I didn’t know I needed until I had it.

I’m not typically somebody who likes to stick with one ecosystem, and I guess that’s one of the reasons I find myself in the situation I’m in. The only reason I have a Google Home Mini in the first place is because I got it for free. I have a Chromecast 4K because of the short-lived Google Stadia service, so I built up a Google ecosystem through sheer coincidence — although I did purchase the Nest for my kitchen with the intention of having a screen there.

Between a Roku in my bedroom, an Apple TV in my living room, and a Fire TV Stick in my basement, I’m just about full on streaming devices. If I had known about the Home Panel, I probably would’ve made the Google TV Streamer one of these devices, but it’s not enough to get me to replace one of my existing options. Don’t get me wrong, Home Panel is a very good feature, but I treat it more as a cherry on top more than anything.

Luckily, I can use the Google Home app on my phone any time I want, and I can always pick up another Google Home device for cheap if I want to expand my voice controls to the living room. I don’t know when that day will come, since I’ve been a slow adopter to smart homes in general. It wasn’t until yesterday that I even set up my thermostat in the Google Home app. Maybe by the time the next iteration of the Google TV Streamer rolls around, I’ll have a beefier smart home and be more willing to pick it up. Nevertheless, I’m excited about the future of smart homes in general, and I hope to see more companies get on board. I’ve been critical about Apple’s slow rollout as there’s not a lot out there that works within the HomeKit ecosystem. The Apple TV 4K is the only Apple device I even own, so that’s not a huge deal for me, but I can easily see how it’d be annoying for Apple fans.