Google Assistant's visual smart home controls are on the way

You don't have to pick up a smart display to use touch-savvy controls in Google Assistant. Users at Droid Life and elsewhere have noticed that Google is rolling out visual smart home controls (teased back at I/O in May) to mobile devices. When you issue certain smart home commands, you'll get a handful of basic controls to fine-tune the results if they're not quite what you were looking for. You can raise the temperature on your air conditioner, or turn off a light instead of turning it down.

We've asked Google if it can elaborate on the rollout. It appears to be limited to a small group of people at the moment, so don't be surprised if it takes days or more for the option to reach your phone. Whenever it does show up, it could be a welcome upgrade -- it's considerably easier to tweak results with your finger than to bark out repeated commands until you get things just right.