Developers building for Google Home have a fancy new tool to play with as of Google I/O. It was first talked about in 2021, but now, the Google Home extension for Microsoft's Visual Studio Code is now available. Visual Studio Code is one of the most popular IDEs available on Windows, Mac, and Linux (including Chromebooks), and Google's new tool is the perfect companion to building for Google Home.

Google Home Extension for Visual Studio Code is designed and created for Google Home Platform developers. This extension gives you access to Google Assistant Simulator, Cloud Logging, and other tools to simplify your smart home development process.

The Google Home extension consists of four main features, one of which is a Google Assistant simulator. With this, developers can ensure full Assistant compatibility without ever having to leave their coding environment. When activated, typing commands that mimic your proposed voice controls to control your devices will return the responses you would expect to see from Google Assistant. There's also a batch utterances feature built-in to test against multiple commands without needing to type them all individually.

Also included are Cloud Logging and Home Graph Viewer. The former provides real-time debugging, while the latter allows finding and testing devices belonging to your project. All with the convenience of never having to leave Visual Studio Code.

The easiest way to install the Google Home extension is through the marketplace inside Visual Studio Code. Setup first involves logging into the extension with your Google account, then selecting a cloud project. At any time, resources are just a click or two away, or you can check out the full documentation to learn more. Those interested in building for Google Home should definitely check out the Building, testing, and deploying smart home devices for Google Home session from Google I/O.