smart-home

Google announced that 3.5 million users have tested its Gemini for Home assistant since the early access program launched in October 2025. The company delivered over 2,500 bug fixes and 50 major feature updates based on user feedback, and is teasing a Google Home Speaker launch for next week.

Google is rolling out Gemini for Home version 4.18, adding hourly weather forecasts with improved temperature accuracy, natural language controls for streaming movies and TV shows, and conversational news briefings across Nest devices. The update focuses on making smart display interactions more detailed and conversational.

Google is rolling out camera-based automations for Gemini for Home, allowing smart home cameras to trigger routines based on visual events like package deliveries or glass breaking. The update includes improved multi-request handling and reduced error rates for the AI assistant that replaced Google Assistant on smart home devices.

Google is expanding its 'Gemini built in' program to include speaker reference designs, allowing third-party manufacturers to build Gemini-powered smart speakers without lengthy development cycles. The program, which previously launched cameras through Walmart's Onn brand, now provides turnkey hardware solutions for both speakers and cameras.

Google has updated Gemini for Home to remove content filters that previously blocked adult users from accessing cocktail recipes. The update also adds faster alarm setting, personalized security camera searches, and thumbs-up/down feedback buttons on smart displays.

Google's Gemini for Home voice assistant now executes smart home commands up to 1.5 seconds faster for lights and plugs, the company announced. The update also brings near-instant processing for alarms, timers, and reminders, currently available for English, French, and Spanish users.

Google is expanding Gemini for Home, its replacement for Google Assistant, to 16 new countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Oceania. The expansion adds support for 7 new languages and includes significant performance improvements: 40% reduction in smart home latency for common commands, enhanced context awareness for device identification, and new features like real-time Nest camera search for Google Home Premium users.

Google has deployed its second major Gemini for Home update this month, reducing response latency by 40% for common commands and substantially shortening voice responses for alarms, timers, and calendar events. The update adds five new alarm/timer capabilities including world event-based triggers and recurring alarms, while expanding Gemini Live translation to 30 languages and rolling out Home features to 19 additional countries.