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Tag: google home

  • Early access for Gemini Home voice assistant is now available. Here’s how to get it

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    A decade ago, when smart speakers with built-in voice assistants were the hot new thing, many imagined they’d quickly evolve into highly intelligent companions. (Think C-3PO or Star Trek’s Data living inside a speaker.) That road has been much longer than expected, as virtual helpers like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant seemed to sit in neutral for years.

    But now that generative AI is here (for better or worse), smart speakers are finally scratching the surface of those expectations. Google’s new version, Gemini for Home, is now available to try. Here’s how.

    First, keep in mind that the Gemini for Home voice assistant is in early access. This means Google is gathering feedback about its features, and — as with all generative AI — it’s wise to assume it will make mistakes. If or when it does, you can send feedback to Google in the Google Home app or by saying, “Hey Google, send feedback.”

    Devices compatible with Gemini for Home voice assistant

    You’ll also want to check your speaker model before diving in. The full Gemini for Home experience is available to try on the Google Nest Hub (2nd gen), Google Nest Audio, Google Nest Mini (2nd gen) and Google Nest Hub Max. Those models all support Gemini Live, which enables conversational back-and-forth chat with natural follow-up questions.

    Other models support everything but Gemini Live. That list includes the Google Nest Wifi point, Google Nest Hub (1st gen), Google Home Max, Google Home Mini (1st gen) and Google Home.

    Another point is that once you dive in, your Google Assistant days will be over (on your speakers, anyway). That’s because Google says that, once you upgrade to Gemini for Home, your compatible devices can’t downgrade to Assistant. That shouldn’t be a problem, but it’s worth keeping in mind before you take the plunge.

    How to sign up for early Gemini access

    Once you’ve confirmed that your speaker(s) are at least partially compatible, head to the Google Home app on a mobile device. There, tap your profile picture (or initials) on the top right. Then tap Home Settings > Early Access. Congratulations: You’ve put in your request.

    The bad news is you may have to wait a bit to confirm your entry into the beta program. Once you’re in, you’ll see a notification from the Google Home app that reads, “Introducing Gemini for Home.” Select that, and follow the prompts. (If you accidentally dismiss the notification, you’ll see the setup banner under Home settings in the Google Home app.)

    Cherlynn Low for Engadget

    At that point, all compatible speakers in your home will be upgraded to Google’s more intelligent AI assistant. You can now throw more advanced questions at it, similar to what you’d ask text-based chatbots like ChatGPT. Except this one sits on a shelf, ready to field your verbal requests at any moment.

    Keep in mind that Gemini Live requires a Google Home Premium subscription. The standard version costs $10 per month or $100 per year. Meanwhile, the advanced tier doubles that: $20 per month or $200 per year. At least for now, the only difference between the two (for these purposes) is that the pricier plan supports a camera history search feature. Both premium tiers unlock access to Gemini Live. So, if that’s all you need, you can save money and get standard.

    Google offers plenty of examples to get started. You can get quick answers to facts, like “Hey Google, who are the top five scoring players in basketball history?” (FYI: James, Abdul-Jabbar, Malone, Bryant and Jordan.) You can also ask Gemini Live to have a chat about ingredients for people with dietary needs. Or, ask it to explain complex topics (like how Wi-Fi works) in simple terms. It may not be at C-3PO level yet, but it’s certainly moving in that direction.

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    Will Shanklin

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  • Google Wants You to Talk to Your Nest Cameras and Doorbell to Find Out What They Recorded

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    Hot on the heels of Amazon’s own Ring and Blink security camera blitz, Google is announcing new Nest cameras with its Gemini AI chatbot as the main selling point in addition to improved image quality. Thankfully, there are only three new Nest products, and they’re relatively easy to understand, unlike Amazon’s entire lineup, which may require a PhD to figure out the differences between each model.

    New Nest Outdoor, Indoor, and Doorbell cameras

    © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

    The three new Nest cameras are the $150 Nest Outdoor Camera (wired, 2nd-gen), $100 Nest Indoor Camera (wired, 3rd-gen), and $180 Nest Doorbell (wired, 2nd-gen). You have some neutral colors like Snow (white) and Hazel, but the most striking color is the “berry” red model for the Indoor Camera. I prefer my security cameras to blend into the walls and ceilings, but if you’ve ever wanted a bright, berry-colored camera watching you from above, now you can live out your wildest dreams.

    On the hardware front, all three Nest cameras boast 2K-resolution image sensors with HDR. Google says the sensors greatly improve recorded video footage quality, especially for low-light and night video. Equally important is the new wider and taller field of view (152 degrees on the Indoor Camera and Outdoor Camera and 166 degrees on the Nest Doorbell)—essential for capturing more in video so that Gemini can have more information to process and understand. With older Nest cameras and the doorbell, they could only send notifications alerting you to motion or sound, but with Gemini, Google says users will be able to get more specific notifications that describe what’s happening.

    Google Nest Product Launch 19
    © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

    For example, if a delivery person comes by your door to drop off a package, Gemini should send a notification describing their clothing and might even get as specific as telling you which delivery service they may be from if it can see a uniform logo or truck in the background. At home, with the Nest Indoor Camera and Outdoor Camera, Gemini could send a notification telling you that your cat knocked over a glass vase or perhaps your child named John (you need to allow face recognition) was playing in the backyard at 4 p.m. instead of doing his homework like you asked him to.

    Gemini also has a feature called “Ask Home,” which combines computer vision from the cameras and natural language processing to find specific clips instead of you having to scrub frame by frame, through hours of footage. Google says you’ll be able to simply ask Gemini to find something from footage. “What happened to the vase in the living room?” is one example, the company shared.

    There are some additional quality-of-life improvements for springing for the new cameras, including “Home Brief” (summary of hours of footage), the ability to zoom in a crop the field of view to focus on only one area for monitoring, and six hours of free event video history (up from three hours).

    All of these features are accessible in the redesigned Google Home app that’s simpler, faster, and more stable. You can still use the Nest app, but Google tells Gizmodo that the Home app will be the primary smart home app for Nest devices moving forward. It’s only a matter of time before the Nest app is phased out sometime in the future, so don’t get too attached. The good news is, the new Google Home app has reached feature parity and stability with the Nest app. So, if the smart home app has left a bad taste in your mouth, like it has with me, I think we should give it another shot and then judge it.

    I’ve not seen any of the new Nest Cameras in action, so I can’t say with what degree of accuracy Gemini is able to recognize people, vehicles, animals, packages, and other objects within footage in and around the home. But I’m hella interested in seeing how well the Ask Home feature works. I’d love to know which one of my two cats knocked over certain things in my apartment while I was at the office.

    For the budget-conscious

    Google Nest Product Launch 03
    © Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

    The new Nest smart home products are feature-packed, but if you have a tighter budget—like a lot tighter—you may want to consider some of Walmart’s new Onn-branded devices like the $23 Indoor Camera Wired and the $50 Video Doorbell Wired. These aren’t comparable to the Nest Indoor Camera and Nest Doorbell—they only record 1080p, and the field of view isn’t as wide—but it does provide a more basic security camera system that integrates nicely with the new Google Home app. If you want the Gemini features like intelligent alerts and event history, you’ll need to pony up for a Google Home Premium subscription, which is split into Standard ($10) and Advanced ($20) plans.

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    Raymond Wong

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  • Google’s new smart home hardware looks mostly familiar in leaked images

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    Google wants to get Gemini in your smart home, and it looks like it’s planning to release a lineup of new Nest Products to make it happen. The company teased a new smart speaker during its Pixel 10 launch event, and now Android Headlines has new images and details that confirm the look of the speaker and a collection of other Nest products that are on the way.

    Based on the images Android Headlines sourced, Google’s new smart home lineup looks nearly identical to the cameras and doorbells it’s already selling. The exception is the new smart speaker, now called the Google Home Speaker, which is smaller and rounder than the Nest Audio, and could be a replacement for the puck-shaped Nest Mini. The new speaker will come in what looks like red, light green, black and beige color options, and offer “360-degree sound.” Android Headlines writes that the speaker also supports Gemini Live, Sound Sensing for detecting smoke alarms or glass breaking and pairing with a Google TV Streamer.

    The rest of the smart home lineup will feel familiar, save for some new colors, internal tweaks and software features. The biggest change is that all of the new Nest devices built-in cameras will reportedly record in 2K resolution, rather than 1080p. They’ll also come in a selection of new colors. The Nest Cam Indoor comes in “Snow” (white), “Berry” (red) and “Hazel” (gray). The camera will include a new “Zoom and Crop” feature that lets you crop a camera feed to focus on a specific area, and be able to store up to an hour of footage locally if your Wi-Fi goes out. Google also plans to expand how long it’ll store video previews of events Nest Cams detect, taking the library of 10-second previews from one hour to three.

    The Nest Cam Outdoor will only come in Snow and Hazel, but it’ll reportedly include all the new features of the Nest Cam Indoor. The same goes for the new Nest Doorbell, except it’ll be available in Snow, Hazel and “Linen” (beige). The decision to largely use the same design on its Nest devices and focus on changing internal components and software features is a similar strategy to what Google used with the Pixel 10 lineup. The phones largely look the same, but they feature improved internals and plenty of new software features.

    Android Headlines writes that Google plans to use this hardware launch to also rebrand its Nest Aware and Aware Plus subscriptions. The new name for Google’s entry-level smart home subscription will be Google Home Premium. The company also plans to sell a Google Home Premium Advanced. As far as which subscription offers what, and if certain Gemini features will be locked behind a higher price, we’ll have to wait until Google details its smart home plans. The company said Gemini for Home will launch in October, so expect more official announcements in the coming months.

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  • Is this Google’s first Gemini-powered smart speaker?

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    Google held its annual Made by Google showcase this week, during which it unveiled the latest Pixel phones and various new AI features. What it didn’t announce is a Gemini-powered smart home speaker, but it might have snuck one into the presentation as an easter egg.

    As spotted by The Verge, about 15 minutes into the stream, on a table next to F1 driver Lando Norris during a Gemini demonstration, you can clearly see what looks a lot like a smart speaker. The fabric-wrapped device we see in the video is white with a light around its base, and it looks more like an upside down HomePod mini than any of Google’s other speakers. According to Android Headlines, it’s called the Google Home Speaker, and is unsurprisingly powered by Gemini.

    Android Headlines claims to have seen more images of the as-yet unannounced smart speaker, which it says will also be available in red, light green and black. It adds that Google’s Gemini Live AI assistant will be a baked-in feature for voice conversations, though without a screen or camera there’s no visual element here. There could also be new natural voice options on the speaker, as well as standard features like media control and smart home automations. It can reportedly also detect unusual sounds like breaking glass or smoke alarms and can send an alert to your phone or tablet if this happens.

    According to the Android Headlines report, the Home Speaker can pair with a Google TV Streamer and double as an additional surround sound speaker, much like the HomePod does with Apple TV. It functions as a smart hub too, with support for Matter. Google announced Gemini for Home this week, which will gradually replace Google Assistant on the company’s existing smart devices, with free and paid tiers offered to users.

    What the leak doesn’t contain is a launch date for this mysterious speaker. But given that Google was seemingly happy enough to have one sitting there in its most important keynote of the year, the smart money would be on an official reveal pretty soon. Engadget reached out to Google for comment, but the company said it had nothing to share at this time.

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    Matt Tate

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  • The Best Google Assistant Speakers for Your Home

    The Best Google Assistant Speakers for Your Home

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    There are several voice assistants locked in a tug-of-war over who controls the smart speakers in your home: Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant, and Apple’s Siri. We prefer Google. Its Assistant answers questions more accurately, has a simpler setup process, and connects to a growing number of smart home devices. All the devices below have built-in Google Assistant, so you can ask it anything you’d search for on Google, or ask it to control smart home products like robot vacuums, smart plugs, lights, and TVs.

    Be sure to check out our handy guide on how to maintain your privacy as much as possible while still enjoying the luxuries of smart assistants. We also have many other buying guides, including the Best Smart Displays, Best Smart Speakers, and Best Alexa Speakers.

    Updated May 2024: We’ve updated this guide with details about Google’s AI script editor for Google Home, and we’ve added notes about using Google with Sonos.

    Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

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    Nena Farrell , Medea Giordano

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  • The Best Smart Speakers With Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri

    The Best Smart Speakers With Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri

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    Connects to Google Assistant.

    Best Smart Soundbar

    With a wireless subwoofer, room-filling virtual surround sound, and Amazon’s Alexa onboard, the Yamaha YAS-209 is the best smart soundbar you can buy right now. It’s compatible with Spotify Connect and has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, which makes it a great speaker for all-around listening in your living room.

    Connects to Alexa.

    ★ Alternative: The Sonos Beam soundbar ($499) (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is another good option. It isn’t our absolute favorite soundbar for the money, but it has Alexa, Google Assistant, and Airplay support (with some Siri) out of the box.

    Best Google Assistant Smart Display

    Smart displays are great in a few different parts of the home, like the kitchen or an entryway, but might go mostly unused. The Google Pixel Tablet (7/10, WIRED Recommends) fixes that by marrying a tablet and a smart display into one handy device. The 11-inch tablet sits on the included Docking Station to turn it into a smart display, appearing almost identical to the Google Nest Hub Max, and you simply pop it off the display to turn it back into a tablet. (There may be a slight learning curve to properly disengaging it from the magnet base.)

    Popping it onto the dock activates the tablet’s Hub Mode, and you can customize the display to either show your Google Photos or select one of the fun clock designs. You can easily control smart home devices by tapping the Google Home icon on the lock screen, which will pull up an overlay of your favorite smart home devices to let you control them and and check camera feeds on doorbells and Wi-Fi cameras. This feature is only available while docked, so your camera feeds are safe from strangers if you take the tablet out and about with you.

    The Pixel Tablet is now our current favorite smart display for a number of other reasons. The dock’s built-in speakers have robust sound with surprisingly decent bass, so you can jam while you’re in the kitchen or the living room. There’s also multiuser support that lets you add up to eight accounts, each of which can have custom apps, layouts, and wallpapers all protected by fingerprint, so the whole family can use this device without infringing on one another.

    If you don’t want to splurge on getting both a tablet and a smart display, the Nest Hub Max (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is still a great option with similar features, a large screen, and pretty impressive speakers considering the slim profile.

    Connects to Google Assistant.

    Best Alexa Smart Display

    The Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen) keeps everything we liked about the previous model, but adds the features we like on Amazon’s pricier Echo Show displays. For the new kicks, the third-gen Show 8 gains a smart home hub that works with Zigbee, Matter, and Thread devices, and it has spatial audio capabilities (though not all music services can take advantage of this feature). It also gains widgets, which allow you to put little Post-It-sized shortcuts on your screen to things like your favorite smart home devices, calendar, or even a little digital sticky note. On the Echo Show 8 these don’t always show up, as they’re part of the display’s content rotation, but they’re fun and handy when they do.

    Besides that, the Show 8 still has great sound and a perfect-size screen for seeing the weather and reading recipes without hogging too much counter or tablespace. It’s easy to control your music and smart home devices, watch videos, and get content like sports scores and weather alerts right on the screen. The 13-MP camera lets you take video calls and doubles as a security camera, or as a way to video call your family within the house.

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    Parker Hall, Nena Farrell

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