The dust is still settling after Amazon unveiled its updated hardware lineup of Echo and Fire TV devices, featuring the e-commerce giant"s upgraded Alexa+ assistant. Google has launched its "Gemini for Home" AI chatbot, marking its biggest smart home upgrade in years. This will replace the decade-old Google Assistant on its smart speakers, displays, and other smart devices.
The new assistant was unveiled this year alongside the Pixel 10 series, Buds 2a, and Pixel Watch 4. While it still responds to the "Hey Google" trigger word, Google explained in a blog post that Gemini for Home is designed to be more conversational and better at understanding the context of your query and what"s happening in your home.
In other words, you can move on from giving rigid, specific commands to get the job done. You can now speak naturally with the assistant, which comes in ten new voices with realistic pacing and intonation. It maintains conversational context so that you don"t have to repeat your words when having a back-and-forth conversation.
Google said the Gemini for Home is better at assisting with common tasks, such as playing media, coordinating household activities, and controlling smart home devices. You can describe what you are thinking of to the assistant instead of remembering the exact song or artist by saying, "Hey Google, play a song from the movie where humans go to a different planet."
Similarly, you can ask it to turn on the lights by the stove when you"re about to cook or make exceptions, such as turning off all the lights except those in a specific room. You can throw natural language queries to create lists, calendar events, timers, or get help with planning and other tasks. Describing the household coordination capabilities, Google stated:
Before, you might have researched a recipe, made a list and then asked the Assistant to "add eggs, milk and noodles to my shopping list." Now, you can just say, "Hey Google, add ingredients for Pad Thai to my shopping list," and Gemini will reason through the request, ask clarifying questions about dietary restrictions or portion sizes and then do the work for you.
You can use Gemini Live on your smart device to have more free-flowing conversations without saying the hotword for all the queries. A new feature called Ask Home lets you control various smart home experiences and manage automation using natural language voice or text commands.
For those with smart cameras, the assistant enhances alerts by adding more context to motion detection notifications, summarizes important events and footage into Home Brief, and quickly locates specific parts of the video timeline.
Google said the Gemini for Home is supported on all the smart speakers, displays, security cameras, and doorbells it has launched in the last decade. The assistant will be available through an early access program and requires the Google Home app version 4.0 or later. Go to your profile icon > select Home settings > select Early access to enroll. The app will notify you when you can start.
However, its advanced features, including Home Brief, Gemini Live, AI-powered notifications, creating automation, and searching your video history, will require a Google Home Premium subscription, which starts at $10.