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Google Home app version 3.39, released August 19, 2025, added a way for a phone’s connection to a selected home Wi‑Fi network to contribute to the household’s Home or Away status. That can support arrival and departure automations, but it is not a new motion sensor: Google Home does not use Wi‑Fi to detect people through walls or identify which room they are in. The feature is an additional presence signal that can work alongside phone location and eligible smart-home device activity.
Version 3.39 is a historical release, not the current app version. The feature remains described in Google’s presence-sensing help.
What Google Home 3.39 changed
The Wi‑Fi addition lets Google Home use a mobile device connecting to or disconnecting from a selected home Wi‑Fi network as one input to Home and Away status. You can use that status in automations—for example, to switch off chosen lights when everyone is away or adjust a compatible thermostat.
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Google announced version 3.39 on August 19, 2025, in its Google Home release notes. Other changes in that release included full schedules for the third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat and Nest Thermostat E, updated thermostat heating and cooling controls, a refreshed energy dashboard, and several iOS and iPad bug fixes. Those items are separate from Wi‑Fi presence sensing.
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What “Wi‑Fi presence” means—and what it does not
Google Home uses the connection state of an enrolled phone on an enrolled home network as a presence clue. In practical terms, the phone connecting to that network may contribute to a Home transition; disconnecting may contribute to an Away transition. Google’s broader presence system can combine signals, including phone location or geofence events and activity from eligible Google Home or Nest devices.
- It is not router-based human detection. The router is not detecting bodies or movement through radio waves.
- It does not locate someone in a room. A network connection is a home-level clue, not room-level occupancy information.
- A connected phone is not proof its owner is home. Someone may leave a phone behind, or a phone may disconnect for reasons other than its owner leaving.
That distinction matters when choosing an automation. Wi‑Fi presence can make Home/Away detection more useful, but it is still an indirect signal—not a guarantee of who is physically present.
Wi‑Fi presence versus geofencing and sensors
| Signal | What it uses | Useful for | Limit to keep in mind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wi‑Fi presence | Whether an enrolled phone connects to or disconnects from the selected home network | Adding a home-network signal, especially if location transitions are inconsistent | Requires the phone to use that network; connection is not proof of a person’s location |
| Phone location/geofence | The phone’s location in relation to a virtual boundary around the home | Arrival and departure detection beyond Wi‑Fi range | Requires appropriate app location access and can be affected by phone settings or location accuracy |
| Eligible device activity | Supported sensor or device activity, such as motion, touch, voice, or media activity, depending on device and settings | Adding signals from smart-home devices already in use | Available signals vary by device; this is not necessarily room-level occupancy |
These signals can complement each other; Wi‑Fi does not simply replace geofencing. If you need to know whether a particular room is occupied, a suitable local occupancy or motion sensor addresses a different use case.
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What you need
- The Google Home app, a Google Account, and a configured Home.
- A phone that can connect to the home Wi‑Fi network.
- A Wi‑Fi network using WPA2 or WPA3 security, as specified in Google’s presence-sensing requirements.
- Presence sensing configured for the household and an automation that uses a presence state if you want Home/Away to trigger actions.
- Google Home location permission if you also want phone-location presence. Google’s guidance calls for “Always” location access where the phone platform requires it.
Google’s documented prerequisites do not require a Google Nest or Google Wifi router. They specify a compatible Wi‑Fi network, not a particular router brand. Network compatibility beyond the stated security requirement is not covered by a universal router list in the cited help.
Enroll your home Wi‑Fi network
- While at home, connect the phone to the exact Wi‑Fi network you want Google Home to use.
- Open the Google Home app and tap your profile picture or initial in the top-right.
- Tap Home settings.
- Under Home features, tap Presence sensing.
- Tap Home Wi‑Fi networks, then choose Add current network.
- If an old network is already enrolled and you are changing it, choose Switch network instead.
Menu labels can change as Google updates the app. If the phone is not connected to the intended network during setup, verify the selected network before proceeding.
Use Home or Away in an automation
- In Google Home, tap Add, then Automation.
- Create a new automation or edit an existing one.
- Add a presence-related starter or condition and choose the state you want, such as someone coming home or everyone being away.
- Add actions for compatible devices—for example, switch selected lights or plugs off, restore welcome lighting, or adjust a compatible thermostat.
- Review the participants, conditions, and actions, then save the automation.
Google’s presence-automation instructions describe the setup flow. The household choice is important: “someone comes home” and “everyone is away” are not interchangeable. If the automation should wait until the whole household has left, each relevant household member should set up their own phone for presence sensing. Otherwise, Home/Away may not reflect the people who are actually home.
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Presence automations are for convenience, not safety. Google warns that automations can fail to start or stop because they depend on internet connectivity, Wi‑Fi, Google services, and sometimes third-party services. Do not rely on this signal as the sole control for locks, alarms, heaters, hazardous appliances, or other safety-critical actions. See Google’s automation limitations.
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Wi‑Fi presence is worth trying if phones reliably join the home network and GPS-based Home/Away changes are slow or inconsistent. It adds a signal without requiring a new sensor or a Google-branded router. It is less suitable as the only signal if household members often leave phones behind, phones regularly disconnect, people move between multiple networks, or guests need to count as present.
Think of it as a convenience layer. A phone can remain connected near the edge of Wi‑Fi coverage, and a phone can be disconnected while its owner is still home. Network outages can also affect connected automations. Those are practical consequences of relying on network connection state, not guarantees about how every home will behave. For manual control, Google Home also allows users to set Home or Away in the app; that is a fallback, though it gives up automatic transitions.
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Troubleshooting
“Home Wi‑Fi networks” is missing
- Update Google Home and confirm you are in the intended Home and household account.
- Open Presence sensing while the phone is connected to Wi‑Fi.
- Check that your account has the necessary household permissions and that presence sensing is available in the app.
Google’s public guidance does not establish a universal list of supported phone models, router brands, countries, or operating-system versions, so avoid assuming one of those is the cause without checking the settings and account first.
The network will not add
- Confirm the phone is connected to the intended network, not a guest network by mistake.
- Check that the network uses WPA2 or WPA3.
- If a previous network is listed, try Switch network.
- As practical checks, consider whether the phone is on an isolated guest network or whether the connection is unstable; those conditions can make the selected network a poor choice for presence sensing.
Home or Away does not change as expected
- Confirm the phone is enabled in Presence sensing and that it connects to the enrolled network.
- If using phone location too, review Google Home’s location permission.
- For household-wide logic, check that each person whose presence matters has enabled their own phone.
- Check whether the automation is keyed to “everyone away” or “someone home”; the chosen logic may explain the result.
- Review presence history and automation activity in Google Home for reported presence events and automation starts.
If you use both Google Home and the Nest app, note that Google says a phone can share location with one of those apps at a time. Enabling phone-location sharing in one can stop it in the other. This concerns phone-location sharing; it is distinct from the Wi‑Fi connection signal.
Privacy and presence history
Google says presence data is used to determine whether users are inside or outside the home geofence, rather than track where they go generally. That statement should not be confused with a claim that Wi‑Fi presence measures precise location: the Wi‑Fi signal is whether an enrolled phone is connected to the selected network.
According to Google’s presence-sensing documentation, presence history is stored for 60 days, then automatically deleted; users can also review and manually delete it. Check the app’s history controls if you want to inspect or remove recorded presence information.
What else was in version 3.39?
Alongside Wi‑Fi presence, Google listed full thermostat schedules for the third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat and Nest Thermostat E, more expressive heating and cooling controls, a redesigned energy dashboard with separate heating and cooling totals and weekly year-over-year comparisons, plus fixes for several iOS and iPad issues. These changes were specific to the 3.39 release notes; they do not mean that version 3.39 is the latest Google Home app today.
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