Google opens the smart home to AI agents like Claude

Google Home is getting a new feature called Home MCP. It lets AI agents such as Claude, Open Claw and Google's own Antigravity access your smart home via a shared standard (Model Context Protocol).

It's not just about turning lights on and off. The agents can analyze data across the home: Google itself mentions examples such as asking what the kids did when they got home from school, or how many loads of laundry you ran last week.

The agent can also talk to you. When it has finished a task, it can send a voice message through your Google Home speaker. You can also ask it to build a custom dashboard for controlling the home.

It doesn't replace Gemini for Home, which is still Google's own assistant in the Home app. Home MCP is more of an extra layer: an entry point for third-party agents working through their own apps.

On the security side, Google has put a damper on things: agents can't unlock doors, and rate limits are built in. But Google itself warns that the connection "may result in unexpected or unwanted behavior" depending on which agent you use, so it's worth reading the fine print if you're considering it.

The feature is so far available only to Google Home Premium Advanced users in the US ($20 a month or $200 a year), and requires setting up a Google Cloud project, hardly something ordinary users will dive into this week.

For Danish users, there's no reason to react now. But keep an eye out: if the feature rolls out more widely, it's a sign that AI agents are really starting to gain access to our physical homes, not just our screens.

What it means for you

Right now it requires a Premium Advanced subscription in the US, so Danish users can't use the feature yet. If you have a US smart home setup and are technically curious, you can follow Google Home's development. For most others, there's nothing to do now: just keep an eye on whether and when the feature comes to Denmark.