Jumping between Nest Cam events in the Google Home app's new playback UI is way less annoying now

Quickly tap forward and back to jump between events in Sightline history playback

When Google's new Nest camera lineup landed, the company decided it was time to fully integrate its security cameras into the monolithic Home app. Like basically everything else in that app, it wasn't the perfect experience, and Google said it planned to deliver a handful of new features to make it better over time. One of them just landed, and now you can jump between events right from the redesigned Sightline playback UI without tediously scrolling through the hours on the timeline.

Image Gallery (2 Images)

Left, old UI. Right: New UI.

Today's change is simple, straightforward, and useful: Now, you'll notice an extra set of playback controls beneath the timeline in the new Sightline playback UI. The forward and back buttons let you navigate forward and backward on the timeline between events without having to manually and very tediously scroll or going back to the "home history" interface to find specific events (which you may not have entered this UI form).

The play and pause controls have also been relocated to the bottom of the screen, replacing a tap of the playback window itself and the floating indicators, which can sometimes block content for short periods.

This doesn't fix the generally scattered sense we still get from the many different parts of Google's now quite bloated Home app, but it will make it easier to navigate between events for a better contextual understanding without having to go back and forth in different interfaces or slowly and very annoyingly scroll through the full timeline.

Google's been on a roll when it comes to adding features to the Home app. In addition to moving the new Nest Cams over to Home and today's UI changes, Google also brought over the new Android TV remote and a Device Speed Test feature for Google/Nest Wi-Fis over the last few months.

The new feature is officially live today, Google tells us. (That's Google for everyone can use it today, but it might have appeared in testing for some folk before now.) Testing indicates that the new feature appears to be live in v 2.47.78.2 of the Home app. If you don't have that update available to you over at the Play Store listing, you can download it over at APK Mirror.

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Ryne Hager (2862 Articles Published)

Ostensibly a senior editor, in reality just some verbose dude who digs on tech, loves Android, and hates anticompetitive practices. His only regret is that he didn't buy a Nokia N9 in 2012. Email tips or corrections to ryne at androidpolice dot com.

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