You've just set up your Google Home Hub – renamed the Nest Hub if you're a more recent buyer in 2019 – and are pleased at punch at your new control-all-things smart control centre. But then it's night time and the lights go down… but the Hub's screen does not.
We know it all too well: after installing our Lenovo Smart Clock – which runs the same software as the Hub, albeit in a stripped-back form – we were at pains to find the necessary settings for it to dim to mono and be dark enough to get some sleep.
Here's how to fix any auto-brightness qualms.
Display Settings
There is more than one settings screen related to brightness that you need to be concerned with and, given how the user interface (UI) is different to Google's Android phones, you might not immediately stumble upon what you need.
Swipe bottom-to-top on the Hub/Clock's screen and you'll see a Settings cog in the bottom right. Tap this and you'll see Display Settings within the menu. Within this you can choose to Show Mono Clockface (or not) and adjust the Minimum Brightness between Brighter, Dim and Darker.
Brightness Control
Which is all well and good. But by default the Hub/Clock don't have default automatic brightness on.
To control this, again swipe bottom-to-top and you'll see a brightness 'sun' symbol to the bottom left. Tap this and you'll see a slider for adjusting brightness between 1-10.
What you need to do for auto brightness adjustment is simply tap the sun symbol again so it shows an 'A' within it and says "Automatic brightness on/off" on the device's screen.
It's as simple as that. No separate switch within software or on the hardware, no deep menu digging – which won't actually help you beyond adjusting the finer points – and now you can have the ideal low-level brightness you'll need if your Hub/Clock happens to live on th bedside table.
