Google announces OnHub WiFi router to simplify setting up and managing networks

And in the coming weeks, you can get it at physical retail stores in the US and in Canada.

Google thinks there are functional benefits to this design: in its announcement post, it says that many people keep unsightly routers hidden away under desks and behind TVs where they don’t work as well. Google teamed up with networking device maker TP-Link to build OnHub. Interference with the radio waves from a wireless router can come from all sorts of things – concrete walls, other wireless networks in your area competing for the same frequencies – and can cause slow downs or connectivity issues.

OnHub also will adapt to the evolving needs of its owners because its software will be regularly updated to unlock new features, according to Trond Wuellner, a Google Inc. product manager. They suggest that it’ll make working with your Wi-Fi easy.

Next, interacting with the OnHub is done through an app. No more ancient-looking setup menus; instead you have a control center designed to fit into Android’s new Material Design motif, available on iOS and Android. The intrusion became derisively known as “Wi-Spy” among Google’s critics.

OnHub is available for pre-order for $199.99 from online retailers in the U.S. including the Google Store, and Amazon. Still, it’s in Google’s best interests that people have strong, reliable Internet connections, the better to consume its growing palette of web services.

Google has a financial incentive to make the Internet more accessible and less frustrating to use because it runs the world’s dominant search engine, as well as the highly popular YouTube and Gmail.

Ensuring the reliability of Wi-Fi systems is becoming more important to Google for another reason. Google does too, apparently.

Google’s preorder page already lists it as out of stock.

Google has their hands in everything (or should we say Alphabet).