5 best Wi-Fi tips on the Google Home app
The Google Home app does more than just collect Google products together, or link them through Google Assistant. When Nest Wifi or Google Wifi are managed through the app, users have access to a number of great tools and features.
Here are five favorites which will appeal to anyone from parents to those who have guests on a regular basis, plus people who just like to know what's connecting to their Wi-Fi at home.
See which devices are connected
Start by opening the Google Home app and click on "Wifi." The first thing you'll see are the number of devices that are currently connected to the network.
Click on this number, and the devices and their names will appear, along with the upload and download speeds they're currently pulling or pushing. Devices that are connected but not in use, like a Sonos speaker, will be there but should have 0 bps up and down. This is a good place to look to see if something is connecting to your network that you don't recognize, or a device that should be dormant or in resting mode, like a printer, is furiously active.
Check the status of the network
Go back to that main Wi-Fi page and Google Home will tell you with a simple green or red light if the internet is connected or not, along with how many Wifi points are active as well.
If you've unplugged a point, for example, it will show up here as well.
See upload and download speeds
You can see the last speed test on the network, upload ad download speeds, from this main page as well. And you can also run your own speed test from this spot.
Or you can click "Network," and see in-the-moment speeds as traffic is moving on your network, along with the total number of GB that have moved through the network too.
Set a priority device or pause connection
Want to always make sure a specific device — like your phone or a computer — is the priority on the network? That's easy to do.
From that main Wi-Fi page, scroll down to "Set priority device." That will open all the device currently connected to the network, with open bubbles next to them. Just click on the bubble next the the device and traffic will be prioritized to this device.
If you want to pause a connection on the fly — maybe shut down your child's smartphone for dinner — you can do this as well. Go back to Devices on the main page, click this, then scroll down the list until you see that specific device listed. The word "Pause" will be in blue next to the device. Click this which will halt traffic to that device until you go back and and click "Unpause."
You can also schedule this so it happens every night at dinner if you choose. That's also available through the main page. Scroll down to "Family Wi-Fi," and walk through the steps to set up this feature which, in addition to creating a set time for pausing devices each day, will also let you block adult sites on devices too.
Create a guest password
Have visitors often? You can create a guest password to your network right in the app. This is a separate network actually which allows you to also control which devices get added. You can find this also on the main Wi-Fi page, by scrolling down to "Guest Network," and then clicking "Set up."
From there you'll be asked to create a mew network name, a password and even select if you want that password to show up on Assistant-enabled displays like the Lenovo Smart Display so that visitors can easily locate the information and log on.
Check out Sales on Lenovo Smart Displays
Check out The GearBrain, our smart home compatibility checker to see the other compatible products that work with Google Assistant enabled devices.
