The AI Smart Home is Finally Here: Gemini Powers Up Google Home | Made by Google Podcast S8E6
- A New Era for Google Home with Gemini [01:09]: The video introduces the “Gemini era of the smart home,” marking a significant advancement for Google Home with more Gemini intelligence, new hardware, and a redesigned Google Home app. This is seen as the “first chapter of the second book” in Google Home’s journey.
- Four Major Pillars of the Update [02:02]:
- All-new Intelligence for the Home (Gemini for Home): Bringing the power of Gemini’s large language models to the home context.
- Redesigned Google Home App: Faster, simpler, smoother, and now integrates all Nest devices (cameras, doorbells, thermostats, etc.) for a unified experience.
- Google Home Premium Subscription Service: Replaces Nest Aware, offering enhanced features.
- New Portfolio of Devices: Including a new Google Home speaker and updated cameras.
Gemini for Home: Enhanced Intelligence
- Universal Upgrade for Existing Devices [05:43]: Gemini for Home will be rolled out to essentially every Google speaker, smart display, camera, and doorbell shipped in the last decade as an early access in October, ensuring existing users benefit without needing new hardware.
- Beyond Google Assistant [06:41]: Gemini not only performs all existing Google Assistant functions (playing media, household coordination like lists/timers/calendars, smart home control) but also upgrades them due to its more fluid, natural, and conversational understanding [08:14].
- Smarter Media Discovery [09:03]: Users can ask for music using more natural, human-like descriptions (e.g., “play the sprinkle song from the show with Gabby and some dollhouse”) instead of exact titles.
- Contextual Assistance [10:25]: Gemini understands context, allowing users to lead with outcomes. For example, instead of calculating a cooking timer and then setting it, a user can say, “Google, set a timer for cooking steak,” and Gemini will clarify details conversationally.
- Conversational Partner [11:34]:
- Gemini Live (Advanced Conversational Mode) [12:48]:
- A separate mode invoked by “Google, let’s chat.”
- Removes the hotword requirement, allowing users to pause, interrupt, and add more context for a fluid, human-like back-and-forth conversation (e.g., asking for keto-friendly recipes and then specifying no spinach mid-response).
- Hardware Constraint: Gemini Live requires newer hardware and will be available on the two most recent Google speakers and smart displays due to microphone placement and processing limitations [14:00].
- Camera Intelligence (Semantic Scene Understanding) [14:26]:
- Gemini’s multimodal capabilities enhance cameras and doorbells by moving from basic security (livestreaming, smart alerts like motion/person detected) to interpreting and understanding scenes.
- Context-Rich Notifications: Alerts will now semantically describe events (e.g., “USPS delivery person walked up your porch and dropped a package off”) rather than generic “person detected” [16:19].
- Home Brief [18:23]: A quick summary where Gemini analyzes hours/days of footage to provide important textual summaries of events.
- Ask Home (“Needle in a Haystack” Problem) [19:05]: Allows users to ask natural language questions about past camera history (e.g., “Did the kids leave bikes in the driveway?”, “Was there a skunk in the driveway?”).
- Automation Creation through Conversation [21:39]: Users can create complex home automations through natural language conversations with Ask Home (e.g., “Make me feel safer” leading to automated door locks and simulated lights when away).
Google Home App Redesign
- Quality and Performance Focus [25:38]: Significant improvements have been made in loading speed, reliability, crash reduction, and camera experience (more fluid, faster frame rates) with over a hundred feature and performance improvements in the last 6-9 months.
- Complete Nest Device Migration [27:04]: All Nest devices (thermostats built since 2015, cameras, doorbells, Nest Protects, Nest Locks) can now be migrated to the Google Home app, providing a single app experience and eliminating the need for app switching. This was a complex undertaking due to different codebases and backend services of older Nest devices.
- Simplified User Interface [31:11]:
- Three Main Tabs: Home, Activity, and Automation at the bottom.
- Persistent Ask Home Header: A persistent entry point for “Ask Home” (Gemini) at the top for quick access from any tab.
- One-Handed Use with Gestures: Swipe gestures on the Home tab to easily navigate between favorites, devices, and dashboards (cameras, climate, Wi-Fi, energy) [32:11].
- Enhanced Camera Experience: Includes “Scrubby” (skimming video with a finger), double-tap to rewind/fast-forward, swiping between timeline and events view, and zoomed-in event previews for trigger-specific motion [32:32].
- Updated Activity Tab: Now shows activity of all devices (Google-made and partner devices), with “Home Brief” at the top [33:20].
- Revamped Automation Tab: Features a carousel at the top showing upcoming automations for all household members to see what’s about to happen [33:56]. The automation editor has also been rebuilt for more power.
Google Home Premium Subscription
- Replaces Nest Aware [35:14]: Google Home Premium is a new subscription service for the entire home, replacing Nest Aware for cameras.
- Tiers and Pricing: The two tiers (Standard and Advanced) and pricing remain the same as previous Nest Aware offerings [35:35].
- Gemini for Home Value Integration: All advanced Gemini for Home capabilities will be added to Home Premium Standard and Advanced tiers [35:59].
- Google One Integration [36:11]: If you are a Google One subscriber with Google AI Pro or Google AI Ultra, Google Home Premium is included at no additional cost. This means a separate subscription is no longer needed.
- Tier Differences [37:08]:
- Free Tier: Users get the upgraded Gemini experience for their speakers and smart displays (all existing Google Assistant functionalities and more).
- Home Premium Standard: Includes Gemini Live and various Ask Home functionalities (e.g., natural language automation creation), plus all previous Nest Aware features.
- Home Premium Advanced: Includes more advanced capabilities like Home Brief (summarizing video footage) and the ability of Ask Home to find specific things from home history.
New Hardware: Speakers and Cameras
- Brand Simplification [43:02]: The branding is being simplified; speakers and displays will be under “Google Home,” while cameras and thermostats remain under “Google Nest” (though users generally associate Nest with cameras/thermostats and Google Home with speakers/displays).
- New Google Home Speaker [44:54]:
- A flagship device built from the ground up and optimized for Gemini.
- Features custom on-device processing for better conversation hearing (background noise suppression, echo cancellation, balanced reverb).
- Microphones are specifically placed for fluid conversations, especially for Gemini Live.
- Features a beautiful light ring under the device to visually communicate Gemini’s activity (listening, processing, reasoning, responding, Gemini Live mode).
- Future Release: Expected in Spring 2026. This delayed release prioritizes rolling out Gemini for Home to existing users and devices first to gather feedback and perfect the experience before launching new flagship hardware [46:23].
- Surround Sound Integration [47:11]: Two new Google Home speakers can be used as cinema surround sound audio output with the Google TV streamer.
- New Cameras (Refreshed Wired Portfolio) [47:42]:
- Flagship cameras with beautiful designs (including a “berry” red option).
- Upgraded to 2K HDR for highest resolution yet.
- Built to be “AI cameras” from the get-go, optimized to power Gemini’s semantic scene understanding [48:50].
- Balanced Design: Sensor choice balances capturing detail for Gemini’s models with user’s zooming needs and upload bandwidth considerations (to avoid hitting data caps).
- Improved Field of View: Outdoor camera has over 150 degrees, doorbells have 166 degrees with a 1×1 aspect ratio for top-to-bottom and left-to-right view [50:28].
- Enhanced Low-Light Performance: Sensors let in 120% more light than previous generations, allowing for full color mode earlier at dawn and later at dusk before switching to HD night vision [51:26].
- Image Quality: All three new cameras (outdoor, indoor, doorbell) were ranked number one by DxO Mark for image quality [52:01].
- Partner Devices (Expanding Camera Program) [53:01]:
- Google is expanding its Google Home platform with a camera program to offer more choice to users beyond flagship Nest devices.
- Walmart is the first partner, rolling out new indoor cameras and doorbells.
- These partner devices will be set up in the Google Home app and offer the full enhanced camera experience.
- They offer incredible value (e.g., indoor camera starting at $22, doorbell in the $40s), providing accessible options for users to access Gemini for Home and the Google Home app experience at different price points [54:18].
Future Outlook
- This is seen as a big milestone and the “first chapter of the second book” for Google Home, with significant future potential for Gemini [55:10].