You may have already been using Google Gemini features like Gemini Live in smartphones, like the latest Google Pixel devices introduced at the Made by Google 2025 event in early September. You’ll also find it in products like the Google Pixel Watch 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8. But oddly, Gemini hasn’t crossed over into the smart home. That is, until now.
Google is redesigning the Google Home ecosystem to integrate Gemini, and introducing a slew of new Google and Nest smart home products that leverage its tremendous capabilities. Further, older model Google and Nest products dating back a decade will also work with Gemini. Effectively, Gemini is now replacing Google Assistant in the smart home, and the improvements are impressive.
What is Gemini for Home?
Gemini for home is a new type of intelligence for smart home products like cameras, doorbells, and smart speakers, that essentially mirrors the experience on phones and computers. But it takes things to another level. Everything is controllable in the redesigned Google Home app.
There’s a Home tab with a consolidated view of all your connected devices, along with new gestures, an Activity Tab that shows everything going on in the home at any given time, and an Automation tab that shows upcoming automations. There are also animated previews of camera footage with the ability to swipe within timelines, rewind, and fast forward. The Ask Home button is a command centre for asking just about anything. As for the ecosystem overall, there’s a lot you can do with various Google, Nest, and other compatible products.
Speak More Conversationally: With Gemini Live replacing Google Assistant, you can speak more conversationally when giving commands or asking questions. You might ask, for example, why the washing machine isn’t working and have it walk you through troubleshooting steps. Or maybe you want to describe a restaurant you went to downtown a few months ago but can’t remember the name of it.
Understanding Intent: While Gemini can still help you find things like recipes and add ingredients to a shopping list, it can do so more intelligently through understanding intent as well. You might ask for a recipe for homemade pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, for example, advising that some guests are gluten free. It can find a recipe, add the necessary ingredients to your shopping list (without you manually rhyming them off and taking into consideration dietary restrictions), and account for how many servings you need based on the number of guests.
Google Home Speaker with Light Ring
Logical Phrases for Smart Home Control: With Google Assistant, if you were about to make dinner, you might say “Hey Google, turn on kitchen lights.” Now, you can simply say “I’m making dinner, turn on the lights” and it will know you mean in the kitchen. You can also use exceptions, like “turn off all lights except for in the home office” if you’ll be burning the midnight oil.
More Detailed Camera Notifications: You’re probably already used to basic “motion detected” or “package delivered” notifications from your smart camera or video doorbell. Google Home takes it a step further, providing detailed descriptions. It might be something like “a delivery driver is dropping off a package” or “a young boy with papers in his hand is knocking on the door.” You can easily search for clips using context, like asking what time your kid arrived home from school or what happened to your tomato plants out front.
Simple Automation Creations: Automations are a great way to make tasks simple, like starting your day with the lights turning on, coffee machine brewing, and music playlist roaring at the touch of a button or vocal command. And they have been possible for a long time. But now, you can use natural language to ask something like “create an automation to turn off the living room TV and lights every Saturday night at 1 a.m.” if you’re prone to falling asleep on the couch and don’t want to waste electricity nor risk burn-in on your TV. If you’re on vacation, you can even ask for lights to randomly turn on and off in different rooms of the home to ensure no one realizes the house is vacant.
Compatible Products Include New and Old
All these features will be available for most Google and Nest products introduced in the last decade. This includes Google Home speakers introduced in 2016 and since, select Nest cameras introduced as early as 2015, the 2018 Nest Hub and newer smart displays, and Nest doorbells since the wired model from 2018. But Google is also introducing new hardware with AI cameras to leverage all the latest features.
Nest Cameras and Doorbells
Gemini Nest Cam Indoor
The new indoor and outdoor Nest Cams and the new Nest Doorbell all boast AI cameras and provide 2K HDR video with a wider and taller field-of-view: 152° diagonal for the cameras (Nest Cam Indoor – 3rd-gen and Nest Cam Outdoor – 2nd-gen) and 166° diagonal for the doorbell (Nest Doorbell – 3rd-gen), which also displays a 1:1 aspect ratio. They all provide more intelligent notifications as well with the ability to scan footage to find what you need. Enjoy digital zooming and cropping, intelligent alerts to identify people, vehicles, animals, and packages, and six hours of event video history with 10-second video previews for activities. They all used encrypted video and two-step verification.
Both the outdoor camera and the video doorbell are IP56 rated for withstanding dust and water, as well as inclement weather conditions like light rain and snow. The Nest Cam Indoor is available in Snow, Hazel and
Gemini Nest Camera Outdoor
Berry for $130, the Nest Cam Outdoor in Snow and Hazel for $200 ($340 for a two-pack), and the Nest Doorbell in Snow, Hazel and Linen for $240.
Other Compatible Products
Along with onn products from Walmart, which will be available exclusively in the U.S., Google has a dedicated program for other Works with Google camera manufacturers to test and build compatible products that will capitalize on these AI features and Gemini Live.
A New Google Home Speaker
There’s also a new version of the popular Google Home Speaker, which will be available in March 2026 for just $140 in Porcelain, Hazel, Jade, and Berry. It, too, is built with Gemini to afford natural conversations and faster interactions. There’s a light ring on the outside to provide visual feedback. Audibly, you get 360° sound playing in every direction so it’s easy to hear, no matter where you are in the room. Pair two for more immersive audio or group one (or more) with other Nest speakers if desired. As always, you can mute the microphone.
Subscription Required
To make use of all the latest and greatest Gemini features, you will need to sign up for a Google Home Premium subscription. The standard tier ($13/mo.) gives you 30 days of event-based video history, intelligent alerts, Gemini for Home, and Help me create. To get all the benefits, Advanced is $26/mo. and doubles the number of event-based video history days while adding 24/7 video history with descriptive notifications, video searches, event descriptions, and daily summaries of events.
It’s long overdue for Google to revamp the smart home experience and brig Gemini into the fold. Based on all the features, the app, and new products, it was worth the wait.
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