is a senior reviewer focused on smart home and connected tech, with over twenty years of experience. She has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
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Google is rolling out its biggest smart home overhaul in years. Launching October 1st, Gemini For Home is a suite of new AI-powered features for Google’s smart home hardware and software.
The biggest change: Gemini is replacing Google Assistant on all of Google’s smart speakers, all the way back to the original Google Home speaker. This LLM-powered upgrade, announced at Google I/O, will be available through an Early Access program at first, with a wider rollout planned for next year.
On smart speakers, Gemini brings an entirely new voice assistant that uses and understands natural language, can interpret context, and can pull in more real-time information. You still activate it with the wake words “hey Google,” but Google Assistant has been evicted.
“Gemini for Home is the intelligence for your entire home,” Anish Kattukaran, head of product at Google Home and Nest, tells The Verge. “It’s not going to just replace Assistant on speakers and displays, but it’s going to upgrade your other devices as well, your cameras and doorbells, where you interact with those devices, and bring those smarts collectively to your entire home.”
With the new Google Home Premium subscription (formerly Nest Aware, and starting at $10 a month), some Nest smart speakers will get Gemini Live, Google’s more conversational chatbot. The subscription also adds Gemini intelligence features to your Nest camera and video doorbells, including the new models Google announced this week. The Google Home app is also getting a Gemini glow-up, in the form of a new chatbot, new automation features, and a new Home Brief that summarizes the events of the day. (Read more about all these here.)
On the new Google Home Speaker, the Gemini voice assistant uses different colors to indicate whether it’s listening, thinking, or responding. Image: Google
A smarter voice assistant
Gemini for Home is a ground-up overhaul of Google’s voice assistant in the home. It offers 10 new voices, more natural conversation, and the ability to understand context, and it can respond with more access to real-time information, according to Google.
At a demo The Verge attended last week, Gemini was asked which day looked better for a barbecue this weekend. It responded with information and context: “Saturday looks like the better day for a barbecue. It will be sunny, with a high of 79 degrees Fahrenheit and no chance of rain.” The current Google Assistant responds to the same request with: “Sorry, I don’t understand.”
Leave No Nest Behind Gemini for Home is coming to every Google Nest smart speaker manufactured in the last decade: Google Home
Google Home Mini
Google Home Max
Nest Mini
Nest Audio*
Nest Hub
Nest Hub Max*
Nest Hub (second gen)*
Google Home Speaker (coming spring 2026)* (*Gemini Live capable)
Kattukaran says Gemini can better handle requests to play media. He said, “Hey Google, can you play that song from the movie with Ben Affleck where they’re on a rocket going up to an asteroid?” and it played “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith.
Gemini also remembers context, allowing follow-up questions like “what are the lyrics about?” and “can you list other songs with similar themes?” without having to say the song name again. However, you’ll still need to say “hey Google” ahead of every interaction — unless you pay for Gemini Live (see below).
Using natural language with household management tasks such as calendars, lists, reminders, and timers should make managing home life simpler, Kattukaran says. Gemini is designed to be communal, with up to six people in a household able to teach it to recognize their voice and manage their own accounts.
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1 / 3 The new Home app has an Ask Home Gemini-powered chart box that lets you create automations with natural language. Images: Google
For smart home users, natural language controls should be a big upgrade. You won’t need to remember specific nomenclature to get your lights to turn off or perform more complex tasks. You’ll also be able to chain commands together using natural language. So you can say “turn off the lights, start the Roomba, close the blinds, and set the heat, and it will do all of it,” Kattukaran explains. Exceptions are also now supported, allowing you to say phrases like “turn off the ceiling lights, but leave the lamps on.”
At launch, you won’t be able to create new smart home routines by talking to Gemini for Home on a speaker. That’s something Amazon’s Alexa Plus allows, and it’s a really great feature. Kattukaran says they plan to bring this to speakers in the future.
However, with a Google Home Premium subscription, you will be able to build automations using natural language in the new Home app. The app also now lets you check device status via an Ask Home chatbot and view a daily Home Brief summary of household activity. You can read more about the new app’s features here.
Gemini Live is making a paid appearance
Gemini Live, Google’s more conversational AI mode, is also coming to the company’s newest smart speakers — but only for paying subscribers. It’s included in both tiers of Google Home Premium, starting at $10 a month.
Activated on speakers by saying, “Hey Google, let’s chat,” Gemini Live enables continuous back-and-forth conversations without repeating the wake word. You can pause, interrupt, or change course mid-discussion, and the AI should adapt. We saw a demo of this; you can read more about it here.
For now, Gemini Live can’t take any actions or integrate with your smart home, and it also won’t display information on Nest displays in the way Gemini will. “Live is a purely voice experience,” Kattukaran says. It’s also only coming to the newer smart speakers and displays: the Nest Hub Max, Nest Hub 2, Nest Audio, and the new Google Home Speaker, coming in 2026.
To use the new Gemini for Home, you’ll need to opt in to Early Access (this is separate from the Public Preview) in the Google Home app under Home Settings. The service is rolling out gradually, and you’ll receive a notification when it’s ready for you.