After nearly 10 years, the Google Home Ecosystem is starting to look more than a little shabby. It’s not been five years since the last time Google released a new speaker, but Google Assistant, the voice assistant with all the power of your voice computer, feels more effective than ever. That’s not just direction, either. In July, Google was seeking a class action lawsuit because of what I can describe as a limitation of the Google Home app, preventing people from changing their security cameras and accessing their security cameras.
You might, if you’re anything like me, be tempted to write a blog about this smart home disaster, “The Smart Home is Still Too Bad,” and there would be advice for doing so. However, what you wouldn’t have known, if you wrote those words at the time, was that the alleged fix was already on the way. I’m talking, of course, about the Gemini home, Google’s next Smart Home assistant, which is now already out at the beginning.
Gemini for the home, in case you missed the news in September, is a smart voice assistant for the home that uses the big language model (LLM), Gemini. It’s billed as an improved version of Google’s woes Currently sitting on your current Google Hardware and sometimes (God willing) it turns your lights on successfully and about 65% of the time. In other words, it’s the beginning of a new era of AI for voice assistants, and given the chatbot’s ability to understand natural language, it should (in theory) be very exciting.
Also, if your name starts with “G” and you run the most popular search engine in the world, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is. As a matter of record, I’ll list a few ways Google says Gemini Home is better than the Google Assistant of yore. From BIG G’s own mouth, here’s how the Home Gemini is described:
- “Renaissance of AI”
- “Support Intelligence that transforms your relationship with your home”
- “… You can have a real back-and-forth conversation without repeating yourself”
- “Gemini can help you better with the main ways your assistant uses it today: media, home networking and smart home control”
- “Gemini goes from being a simple nottetaker to an active partner by understanding and interpreting the intent behind your calendar, to-do list, time and reminder applications.”
- Gemini is the Next Generation of Google Home”
As you may have seen from these big statements, the home gemini should be a big thing, and the reason I worry so much is that I have my doubts that in fact Google will be able to deliver all those promises. As I commented earlier, harnessing the power of chatbots can be as powerful as Google makes it seem – just ask apple and its botched siri release.
I also highlight all these lofty promises for a very important reason, which is what Google is now asking for money If you want to enter the future of voice computing. While the “basic AI development” with all its existing speakers is free, there are many premium plans that offer additional features that provide automation (AI helps you set automation) and additional camera notifications. The standard plan costs $10 per month, while the advanced plan costs $20. If you’re going to be putting your hard-earned money into this thing, you should know exactly what’s promised.
If you’re ready to enter the future of smart homes hosted by Google, you can join the early access program for the Google Home app by tapping on your profile picture, navigating to settings, and selecting “early access” at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until 2026 to do that with hardware, however, as the next home speaker isn’t coming until spring. Either way, Google made a lot of promises here, and it looks like we’re finally going to see if we can deliver on the promise of a dynamic voice assistant 10 years ago.
