Huge news this afternoon, on top of the Pixel 10 announcement and Android 16 QPR2 Beta 1 release, Google has confirmed that Gemini is coming to replace Google Assistant on the company’s lineup of smart speakers and displays.
Slated for early access release in October, “Gemini for Home uses the advanced reasoning, inference and search capabilities of our most capable models, making it both more powerful and easier to use than Google Assistant,” the company explained in a blog post. Basically, anything Assistant can already do, Gemini will be able to do it, plus users will have access to Gemini Live for real-time conversations.
Google provides a fun example of how Gemini Live can be useful, with a user saying, “My dishwasher isn’t draining. Can you walk me through some simple troubleshooting steps to see if I can fix it on my own?” Funny enough, I can answer that one for you — No, you can’t fix it on your own.
The big sell here is that Gemini is more contextual. Instead of speaking basic commands to your Google Home device, you can be a bit more free in how you talk to Gemini and give it more complex commands like, “turn off the lights everywhere except my bedroom.” Not just that, but you can give multiple commands at once like, “Dim the lights, and set the temp to 72 degrees.”
Google says that there will be free and paid versions, though, the company doesn’t provide specifics on that aspect. We want to assume that anyone already paying for upper Gemini tiers will get whatever Google offers as part of their package, but we don’t know yet.
Gemini or Assistant, i don't even care at this point. Assistant has gotten so bad on our Nest Hubs the last couple years, that, coupled with my decision to de-Google my life, i'm replacing the Hubs with Apple's new Homepods w/a screen when they release next year.
About time! We have five Google Home devices in our house and they've gotten noticably dumber over the last year. I just hope they'll be compatible when this roles out.
You're lucky…only over the last year? I was crying foul about the downfall of my Google Home Assistants for about 3 years now.
Any clue to if we can opt out?
WHy would you opt out of a new, smarter, working assistant to keep the old, dumb, non working one?
because I don’t want to use Gemini
Will it come to Google Home Mini?
Anything is better than Google Assistant right now. Google pretty much killed it already.
Most have gone downhill the last couple years… It rarely understands what the heck I'm talking about
If this is anything like the Gemini rollout on Pixel phones, oh s**t. I had to revert back to Google Assistant because it couldn't handle any of my Google home automations, which I use regularly all day everyday.
That has all changed since then. I did the same thing, but Google fixed that months ago. I'm all in on Gemini now, and its so much better than what Assitant became.
Sweeeeet. I had no idea. Thanks for the heads up man
Maybe just in time for a new Nest Audio device…
sooo, is this updating google smart display devices already out?
Are you asking if this is already available? If so, no, it will release in early access starting this October.
My bad, I meant will they be updating old smart displays? like the lenovo ones
They didn't specify exactly which models would get it, but I'm going to assume "no" on the Lenovo ones. My guess is this will make its way to Google/Nest-branded devices. But we shall see!
Google Home Mini?
Unlike on the Pixel, I don't think we can opt-out of Gemini on Nest Speakers. Hopefully, the AI is all done on the speaker for security and privacy. Going to miss Google Assistant. It was so useful for me.
Amazing