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 finally launching a new smart speaker, and it’s a complete redesign. The new Google Home Speaker features a new flattened sphere shape, new colors, a new light ring, and lots of new AI-powered features.
Announced this week, along with a major Gemini-infused update to its Google Home smart home platform, the speaker will also run the new Gemini voice assistant instead of Google Assistant. It won’t be available until spring 2026, but I got an early look in New York City last week.
Ditching the Nest moniker of its predecessors — the Nest Mini and Nest Audio — the Google Home Speaker features an entirely new design. At $99.99, it’s larger than a Mini but smaller than the Audio, around the same size as a HomePod Mini, but wider and flatter. The speaker is launching in four colors: white, gray, green, and red. I was particularly taken with the berry red color, which is bright and bold — a far cry from the muddy orange of the Nest Mini.
The new smart speaker comes in four colors and will launch next Spring in the US, Canada, UK, and several other countries.
Featuring 360-degree audio, the speaker is catching up to competitors’ offerings from Apple and Amazon sound-wise. I heard it pumping out Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” with clear vocals, nice mids, and some decent bass. You can pair two for stereo sound and connect them wirelessly to a Google TV Streamer for TV surround sound — although I didn’t get to demo this.
Gemini is the primary interface for the speaker, and it has been significantly upgraded from Google Assistant.
Google says the speaker was “designed from the ground up” to support Gemini for Home, Google’s new smart home platform that puts AI front and center. It will be powered by Google’s new voice assistant, Gemini, and also support Gemini Live, a paid version that offers a more conversational AI chatbot experience. It’s also a Google Home hub, a Matter Controller, and a Thread border router, allowing it to connect and control smart home devices in Google Home.
Google Home’s Anish Kattukaran tells me the speaker features custom processing for Gemini and optimized far-field microphones. Also new is a light ring, another feature that Apple and Amazon’s smart speakers also have. Situated at the bottom of the device, the ring changes colors to indicate when Gemini is listening, thinking, or responding.
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