Google has taken its Local Home SDK out of developer preview mode so users can begin submitting local fulfilment apps through their smart-home Actions console.
 
The developer preview was introduced last year. It is a suite of local technologies to enhance smart home integration with Google Assistant by adding local fulfilment. Since then, the company has been incorporating feedback and getting the experience ready for production.
 
It is now exiting developer preview and allowing users to submit local fulfilment apps along with their smart home Action through the Actions console using Local Home SDK v1.0.
 
As part of the smart home platform, local fulfilment extends a smart home Action and routes commands to devices through the local network, benefitting users with reduced latency and higher reliability. If a local path cannot be successfully established, commands fall back to the cloud fulfilment.
 
The Local Home SDK v1.0 supports discovery of local devices over wifi using the mDNS, UDP or UPnP protocols. Once a local path is established, apps can send commands to devices using TCP, UDP or HTTP.
 
Along with this release, Google has also improved the scan configurations in the Actions console based on feedback. Users can now enter multiple scan configurations for a given project, enabling the local fulfilment app to handle multiple device families that may be using different discovery protocols.
 
The new interface groups scan attributes by protocol and highlight required fields, making it clearer how to configure a project properly.
 
The Local Home SDK configuration page in the Actions console now accepts JavaScript bundles for local fulfilment apps. When users are ready to publish their apps, they can upload their JavaScript files to the console and submit their Action.
 
Google has also updated the test suite for smart home to support local fulfilment as well.
 
“Be sure to self-test your local fulfilment before submitting your updated smart home Action for review,” said Dave Smith, developer advocate at Google. “You must provide updated test suite results with your certification request when you submit.”