[akaij]

> I'm not familiar if users are forced to use the Google Home app

Yup.

On a related note: I haven't been able to find a way to root it for OpenWRT. Does anyone know of any resource, other than the OpenWRT website, that could be helpful?

[aagha]

Seems some work is happening on this:

https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/google/google_wifi

[akaij]

If I'm reading correctly, that page is for the newer "Google WiFi" products, which are different.