Gemini for Home: The helpful home gets an AI upgrade

Anish Kattukaran

Chief Product Officer at Google Home & Nest

Nearly a decade ago, Google introduced millions of people to the convenience of a voice assistant in the home that provided hands-free help for everyday tasks. But the interaction was functional, not intuitive or natural. It was a transactional tool, not a collaborative partner.

Today, that begins to change. Gemini for Home is a new, foundational intelligence that transforms your relationship with your home. Gemini not only replaces the Google Assistant on your smart displays and speakers but upgrades the smarts of devices in your home like your cameras and doorbells as well as in the Google Home app. It’s built to be more conversational, to better understand what’s happening and to make it easier than ever to get things done at home.

A more natural conversation with your home

For years, you’ve had to speak to your home in rigid, specific commands, but with Gemini, you can have truly organic conversations. Gemini gives you a selection of 10 new, more natural-sounding voices that have realistic pacing and intonation. This perfectly complements Gemini's ability to use real-time information to provide current, contextual answers.

Gemini can maintain conversational context, so you can have a real back-and-forth conversation without having to constantly repeat yourself. For example, after asking, "Hey Google, my dishwasher isn’t draining, what should I check first?" you can follow up simply with, "Hey Google, the filter looks good, what should I check next?" Gemini understands you're still talking about the dishwasher, so you don't have to start the whole conversation over.

This leap in understanding isn't just about answering new questions; it's about making everyday things you already do simpler and more intuitive. Gemini can better help you across with the main ways you use your assistant today: media, household coordination and smart home control.

For media, Gemini transforms a rigid search into a fluid conversation because it understands vague, human context. Instead of remembering the exact song or artist, you can describe what you’re thinking of, just like you would to a friend. You can say, "Hey Google, play the song from the movie where a bunch of oil workers fly to space to blow up an asteroid, " or find a podcast by asking, "Hey Google, play a recent podcast featuring Sundar Pichai," and Gemini will understand and find the show and episode for you.

Similarly, Gemini also understands your context for smart home control better. For example, if you’re upstairs and say, “Hey Google, I’m about to cook, can you turn on the lights by the stove,” it will know to turn on the lights in the kitchen downstairs. It can also now handle complex requests with exceptions, which has been a huge user request. For example, you can now say, "Hey Google, turn off all the lights, except for the office lights," and it just works.

For household coordination, Gemini moves from being a simple notetaker to a proactive partner by understanding and interpreting the intent behind your requests for calendars, lists, timers and reminders. 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. Similarly, you can ask Gemini to set a timer for making an egg, even if you don’t know how long it should be, and Gemini will figure it out.

Hands-free expert help with Gemini Live

Gemini is better at understanding how to help with everyday tasks, but it’s also better at free-flowing chats or brainstorms. When you want to have an even more free-flowing conversation, you can say, "Hey Google, let's chat," to talk to Gemini Live. ¹ Now the hotword is gone: You can talk, you can pause, you can interrupt, you can pivot, you can follow up — just like you would with a person.

For example, you can figure out dinner from scratch by simply listing the ingredients you have on hand: "I have spinach, eggs, feta, and some bread... what can I make?" Then, you can refine the idea in real-time with follow-ups like, "Great. Now, what's a keto-friendly version?" and add another constraint like, "It also has to be something my kids will actually eat."

You can even use it as a creative partner to plan an event. Start by saying, “I want to plan a surprise birthday party for a friend.” Then, you can build on the idea together: “They love old Hollywood movies … Perfect! What’s a simple, on-theme food idea?” Gemini can help you brainstorm everything from the theme and decorations to the menu, all in one seamless conversation.

From a nutritionist in your kitchen to a storyteller in your living room, every conversation is personalized and creative. The possibilities are truly endless.

A smarter way to see your home, built with Gemini

Another significant upgrade is that Gemini takes your smart cameras and turns them into true “AI” cameras. Until now, the smart camera experience was a constant stream of low-context alerts like "motion detected," "person detected," "package detected," leaving the burden on you to be a detective and figure out what matters. Gemini for Home fixes this by moving from simply alerting and recording to interpreting and understanding. It doesn't just see a “person” and a “package” — it has the semantic understanding to know that "a USPS delivery driver is placing a package on the porch and walking away." Here are three ways you’ll get better help from your cameras with Gemini:

• Get alerts that tell the whole story: Gemini now provides AI descriptions ¹ directly in your alerts and your camera video history. This gives you a full narrative of what’s happening instead of just seeing a “motion detected” alert — you’re learning if it’s a delivery arriving or just a shadow moving.
• Catch up on your day in seconds: Previously if you were away at work all day or on a trip and need to catch up quickly, you had to manually scroll through a long timeline of individual video clips, or hundreds of notifications to try and piece the story together yourself. Now, Home Brief ¹ cuts through all that noise for you. It automatically identifies the day’s important events and summarizes hours of footage into a quick, digestible summary delivered each evening with relevant video clips from that day’s events. You can read to catch up on what happened at a glance and ask follow up questions. And you can customize your home brief to make it shorter or longer or focus on the things that matter most to you like your pets or packages.
• Find any clip, just by asking: But what about when you’re not looking to catch up but to find a specific moment? With, Ask Home you can search hours, even days, of your video history using natural language. It's perfect for convenient questions like, "What time did the kids get home?" and also for getting critical information fast, like asking, "Did I leave the car door open?" You can type your question in the app or just ask your speaker or display.

Ask Home: Your new, natural language command center

That breakthrough in understanding is the key. Because that power isn't just for reviewing your past; it’s how you will control your present and automate your future. In the Google Home app we showed you how Ask Home lets you search your cameras, but it can do so much more:

• Find things, fast: Start typing a device or automation name and Ask Home quickly shows related items, so you can find what you’re looking for fast.
• Control your devices using natural language: You can now execute complex, nuanced device actions in a single, natural sentence. For example, you can say, “Turn on all the lights except for the kitchen lights, and lock the front door.” And if you just want to know what’s happening right now, you can ask questions like “what lights are on?” or “are my doors locked?”
• Create automations, just by describing them: Automations were previously a niche feature, hidden in menus for enthusiasts. Gemini makes this powerful tool accessible to everyone. You no longer have to “program” your home; you just describe what you want. Simply say, “Create an automation to turn on the porch lights and lock the front door every day at sunset,” and it’s done. You can even get creative to help protect your home while you're away. Just ask Gemini to “turn different lights on and off throughout the evening to make it look like someone is home,” and it will create a routine to simulate activity.

As we begin this next era of Google Home, we know that building a truly helpful home is a long-term commitment. In this new AI wave, the true promise isn't just about new hardware; it's about making the products you already own and rely on fundamentally more intelligent.

That’s why we’re bringing Gemini for Home to every speaker, smart display, camera and doorbell we’ve made in the last decade, along with the new Google Home app. It will be available via an early access program because we want you to try all of these new features and continue giving us feedback as we work to perfect the experience. The early access rollout for these devices will begin this month (with speakers and smart displays starting towards the end of the month).

To sign up for the early access program, use the Google Home app (version 4.0+): go to your profile icon, select Home settings, and then select Early access to enroll. You’ll be notified in the app when you can begin.

The Gemini for Home voice assistant will upgrade and replace the Google Assistant on your speakers and smart displays. This powerful update is included with your device, making your standard "Hey Google" voice assistant more conversational and capable than ever before. The more advanced features, including Gemini Live, AI-powered Notifications, Home Brief, searching your video history and creating automations with Ask Home will be available through our new Google Home Premium subscription. Plans start at $10 a month and are also included with Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions at no extra cost.