We started talking about this back in August, so this news shouldn’t come as a surprise – Gemini is here to replace Google Assistant in the world of Google Home and Nest devices. The rollout will take some time, but the Gemini for Home moment has arrived.
As a part of Google’s special Home announcement party today, where they talked about the new Google Home app and the new Google Home speaker, they also shared all of the details around Gemini for Home on your Home devices.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the news you need to know:
- Gemini for Home comes to every speaker, smart display, camera, and doorbell that Google has made in the last decade, replacing Google Assistant. To start, this will be available in early access for those who want to try before Google truly rolls it out to everyone. If you want early access, you’ll sign up through the new Google Home app (4.0+), tap on your profile icon, then “Home settings,” and then select “Early Access” to enroll. Once you have access, you’ll be notified.
- Gemini Live is included. If you want to carry on conversations with an AI bot through Gemini Live on your Home devices, you’ll be able to do that. This means brainstorming or just having conversations with a non-real person because you are bored or you could tell it a list of ingredients you have on hand to help you come up with a recipe for the night. You can even fine-tune the results it gives you to being keto-friendly or that your kids might like.
- 10 new and natural-sounding voices included. When Gemini takes over your home for Assistant, you’ll have 10 different voices to choose from that provide “realistic pacing and intonation.”
- More complex questions with better answers. Since Gemini is AI, the questions or tasks you’ll ask home devices can be much complex, yet still return results. From asking it to find songs from some obscure movie that you can’t think of yet can describe to telling it to turn on specific lights next to objects in your home, things should get easier to do without needing to be as direct as you were previously. You can even say things like, “Set a timer for making an egg,” and Gemini will pull up a timer based on info it can find without you having any idea what the amount of time is.
- Gemini-powered cameras are actually smart. Your camera feeds and notifications are powered by Gemini, so that means AI descriptions of alerts that you can also search through. You can ask when your kids got home or if you left a car door open or when USPS delivered a package and it’ll return that info. You can also catch-up on your day with a Home Brief feature that summarizes hours of footage into a neat little summary.
And that’s it! Gemini is coming to take over Assistant on all of your Home devices. The early access rollout starts this month with speakers and displays closer to the end of the month. Google did not say when the full rollout is going down, but it could be a while.
update my lenovo smart display pleaseeee
Might be time to get rid of all Google home nest devices. Thanks for the warnings.
No sign of it on my end. Argh.
No it didn't. Not if you don't have the 2nd gen Nest Hub. Fix your headline please. Stop giving 1st Gen owners like me false hope.
Gemini is trash. As for conversation, it is incapable of discussing anything of value. It's not allowed to have discussions on controversial topics, and will often defer to a both sides strategy. It feeds misinformation in order to avoid controversy, such as falsely crediting Elon musk with reusable rockets if you push it to tell you one scientific contribution that he has ever made, when it insists that he is a visionary. That's just one example.
we are in for dark days, when corporate censorship based out of investor, fear is what controls the majority of our information
No, it didn’t. You still have to be lucky to get in early access for existing devices by end of October. This is a terrible rollout
It's day 2. LOL. Relax.
My Home app's updated but I have early preview so maybe that's why. Gemini is on my Nest Hub Max. The reminder cards now have a dark background instead of pink. I'm bummed about Photo Frame where it only displays the Album name instead of Time and Location. I submitted feedback on it. It's the little things. lol
I got the huge pop-up saying Gemini coming soon, but nothing to add the preview, and my Nest Speakers are still on assistant
Anyone see the update yet? I haven't seen it yet
Yes, I have it.
Pixel 8 Pro on Google Fi
I already have the app version 4.0.53, including the 3 tab update. However, I don't see the "Early Access" option in the Home Settings. Am I missing something?
I have been using the Public Preview features for a long time, and Public Preview settings still show in my app. Could that be the reason why "Early Access" isn't showing? Do I need to leave the Public Preview program to then enroll in Early Access? Shouldn't both of those programs be the same?
So many questions but so is life for us Google fans, Google's right hand never speaks to its left hand.
Same here. Just got the 3 tab update, but no early access to be found. I'm on the stable version, not the public preview.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d201d3b636c9d949abe045bf78ac03ffcc5d362a219c5d41c3bac88e2ffea0f9.jpg Here is where it should be, or at least where it is on my phone.
According to The Verge:
This saddens me. Google Assistant on my Nest speaker has been so good whereas Gemini on my Pixel has sucked. I will give it 6 months to see if Google can pull their head out and make Gemini a better assistant, but otherwise I may have to head into the Apple ecosystem for a better home automation experience
Assistant has been mostly trash and or hit or miss for me over the last 2 years. This is exciting news for me
Google Assistant has gotten consistently worse for me over the years. I can't believe how far it's fallen. Anything would be better
Stop complaining about progress
Unlike those downvoting you, I'm in the same boat as you in regards to Assistant vs Gemini. Gemini on my phone fails to do the most basic things that Assistant has no issue with. Me: "Hey Google, what am I listening to?" Gemini: "I'm a large language model incapable of…."
Assistant has been garbage for at least 2 years.
And in many ways, Gemini is worse. Yes, it many ways it is better but they prematurely replaced mobile Assistant with it when it came to basic functions. Replacing something that can recognize music and set timers with your phone locked with one that says "Sorry, I'm an LLM." and "Please unlock your phone to access this function." is a downgrade IMO.