With Google slowly marching towards some sort of integrated and consistent IoT / Home Automation experience a gaping hole in their setup was an easy way to user your phone to control your devices. Currently you have to open the phone, find the Home app, open it, and then find the device you want to control. That may all change in Android 11.
Since the launch of the Android 11 Developer Preview the internet super sleuths have been pulling apart the build and it looks like Google may be planning to place home controls into the power menu. This include a revamp of the power menu, as seen below, that moves all of the control to the top of the display leaving a lot of real estate to accommodate new actions.
You can also see the word Home at the top of the UI, now that may just be some unfinished design or may indicate that controls from the Home app are heading on over. XDA also found evidence of a new shortcuts for home controls that are intended to move into a new ‘Controls’ Menu. Even if they don’t end up being embedded in the power menu, it certainly looks like Android will finally get a home control centre of it’s own.
XDA has an example of one of these control short cuts thanks to a developer who manged to get a light bulb control onto the page. Now before you get too excited and start planning you master control layout, there’s a lot still not know about this new feature, and even more chance that it may be changed, axed or shelved. However, it is great to finally see Google taking a few more steps towards provide multiple control surfaces for the home automation strategy.
