Google only kicked off its Gemini for Home rollout a few weeks ago, but it’s full steam ahead for the company’s efforts to replace Assistant. After speeding up invites in the US last week, we’re now seeing our first international expansion of the program.
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The Google Home app is adding support for transferring all of your old Nest gear to the new app with a single tap, instead of repeating the process over and over again.
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Over the last few weeks of staggered rollouts, some users have gained access to Gemini for Home, which adds Google’s AI assistant to existing Nest devices. The upgrade seems to be breaking some automations, though.
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Material 3 Expressive switched back to a shorter bottom bar, but not all apps — like Google Home — adopted that at launch. That has now changed.
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Smart home cameras are everywhere now, and while there are some great ideas like the ones found in the dual-tracking Baseus X1 Pro, I continue to just wish everything worked better within the Google Home app.
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In addition to their ADT partnership (and investment), Google is working with AT&T on its new Connected Life security system.
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After kicking off the rollout a few weeks ago, Google says the Gemini for Home replacement of Assistant on smart speakers is now available within a day of opting in, at least for those in the US who can access it.
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IKEA has announced over 20 new Matter-connected smart home products coming to market soon.
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In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, Google’s big Gemini for Home voice assistant update doesn’t just work on Nest devices, but several third-party Google Assistant speakers too!
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Just over a month after launching an early access program, Gemini for Google Home is coming to a new wave of users in the latest rollout.
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Google has removed its longstanding “Call Home” feature from the Google Home app in recent updates, breaking support for starting calls directly to devices such as the Nest Hub Max.
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The beauty of Google Home is that it mixes together a lot of great smart home tech into one app, but there’s always been a clear disconnect in cameras. If you have a Nest camera and another brand, for instance, the Nest camera is always going to work better. That’s why the reveal of Google’s partnership with Walmart for affordable smart home hardware was pretty exciting, and why the discounts have been irresistible.
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Google has shown a lot of love to older Nest products recently in terms of adding new features, but users of older first-generation Nest Cams have been left with an issue that leaves the cameras offline in the Google Home app, with no clear way to fix it.
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The Gemini for Home voice assistant started rolling out at the end of October, with Early Access availability currently quite limited. A trick today does not enable the new LLM-powered assistant, but does give you access to the new Gemini voices.
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The latest edition of the Google Home releases notes today are not tied to a specific version of the app, and focus on Gemini for Home improvements.
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I’m not really a huge fan of modern AI. For the past couple of years, it’s just been shoved into everything online, and usually not for the better. Google, though, has really hit its stride lately in finding incredible, out-of-the-box ways to use AI to just make things better, and there are a couple of key examples of this.
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Google is rolling out Home app 4.3 for Android (not yet widely available) and iOS (already live) today as a more sizable update.
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Outside of Gemini, work on the Google Home app continues today with “Improved device controls” in the Public Preview program.
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Welcome to The Sideload episode 12, a NewGeekGuide podcast. This week, Will welcomes Ben Schoon back to the show to discuss his experience using Gemini for Home, Google’s AI-optimized suite of tools now available in early access. It’s a surprisingly positive experience in Ben’s eyes, but does that just make its letdowns sting that much more? Plus, Ben and Will talk through how Gemini can shine on Google TV, whether it’s improving the right parts of Android Auto, and Ben’s favorite smartphone of 2025.
Gemini for Google Home has arrived and, with it, a glimpse of Google’s view of the future of the smart home. But that future is still held back by the simple fact that, like anything with AI, it makes too many mistakes.
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Google Assistant is officially being shown the door, and Gemini is sneaking in through the back. As early access opens for users, adding Gemini to Google Home requires signing up – here’s how.
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Following the last edition on Friday (which the Gemini for Home voice assistant requires), release notes for Google Home 4.2 are now available.
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Google is beginning to roll out the Gemini for Home voice assistant in the US for devices set to English on all Nest speakers and displays from the past decade. Make sure you’re enrolled in the Early Access program.
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Walmart’s Google Home-integrated cameras promise the feature set of Nest but at a fraction of the cost. But, for some users, there have been some issues in getting these cameras working.
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