After months of teasers and brief betas, Google has made it official: Gemini AI is replacing Google Assistant on all Nest and Google Home-related devices this year, officially called Gemini for Home. This version of Gemini starts rolling out in October with the same familiar "Hey Google" phrase but a whole new approach to voice commands.
It's not only the death knell for Google Assistant in basically everything (I'm going to have to delete Assistant from the rest of my guides), but also a chance for Google to address lingering voice assistant issues. For more than a year, CNET has been concerned that Google Assistant just can't compete in the smart home, citing lost reliability and poor performance on basic home voice commands.
We're not alone, either: Multiple social threads in recent months have talked about Google Home glitches and lost capabilities where it could once follow voice commands with ease. Some users worried that Google Assistant was being sacrificed on the altar of Gemini AI. If that's what happened, we're about to find out if the brand-new home voice assistant can make everything better again.
Gemini's shot at smart home domination
Gemini integrations have already come for Google Home security -- now it's getting much bigger.
Gemini has already appeared in other facets of the smart home and Google Home app, notably with the ability to ask questions about security video footage and some Gemini-enhanced Google Assistant trials. Now, users will be able to ask Gemini to control smart lights, change the temperature, play music or set timers.
Those are common voice assistant tasks, but Google says Gemini AI will bring additional tricks to the table. That includes the possibility of more complex home commands like, "Hey Google, set a timer for boiling Yukon potatoes until soft" or "Play that one popular song from K-Pop Demon Hunters." Conversational AI also means you can bounce back with follow-up questions or requests for more info without needing to "Hey Google" your way through command steps every time.
Gemini can answer questions from your video history, too.
Such promises sound familiar, but have been slow to reach the home. Gemini at Home follows with the ongoing trials of Alexa Plus, which is going through a very slow rollout with promised features not yet available, as well as the news that the advancements in Apple's Siri AI will have to wait until at least next year. That leaves Gemini with the sudden opportunity to be the first fully launched conversational AI in the smart home world, if it can leapfrog Alexa Plus in its rollout schedule. Thus far, Gemini rollouts have been on time and relatively speedy, so I think it has a shot.
But come October, Gemini for Home has to prove that it's fixed the ongoing problems with Google Assistant's accuracy and dropped smart capabilities. I'm hopeful -- Google Assistant didn't need so much a band-aid as it needed a full rework, and that's certainly what Gemini is. But I need to see how it actually performs in home routine tasks to make a final call.
If you're curious too, look for invites to the first rollout coming in October. I'll be doing the same to see just how my Nest devices respond to the big change. We've seen what Gemini can do on a phone. Now it's time to see how useful it is around the home.