Google Home Speaker with Gemini Assistant Now Available

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The last time Google released a smart speaker, the world was in the throes of a pandemic. Yes, it's been six years since the company trotted out a dedicated speaker. However, this newest Google Home Speaker brings a big change with it: The device has been redesigned to showcase the new Gemini assistant instead of the Google Assistant that powered all previous speakers and smart displays.

Google announced the speaker last fall alongside new Nest smart home cameras and video doorbells, promising a spring 2024 launch. We're well into summer now, but it's finally go time. The company today announced that preorders for the Google Home Speaker start June 17, with official sales kicking off June 25.

It costs $100 and comes in Berry, Jade, Hazel, and Porcelain, though the first two colors are exclusive to the US. The experience of using it should feel familiar if you’ve owned other smart speakers. You wake Gemini through the 'Hey, Google' hot word and ask it questions.

But Gemini is leaps and bounds better than the old Google Assistant at understanding natural conversation, so your queries do not need to be as rigid, and you won’t need to ask things in multiple ways to get what you want. Even if you make an error in your original ask, you can stop and rephrase your question midway through—just like you would if you were talking to a human—and Gemini will understand your intent. The Berry color of the Google Home Speaker makes me want to slice it and eat it.

You can string multiple commands in one sentence, and Gemini should be able to take care of them. You can be hyper-specific—turn off all the lights except my bedside lamp—and it'll parse it through. You can ask follow-up conversations without having to bring up the original context all over again; like with the Google Assistant speakers, the microphone stays on for a brief window after Gemini answers a question so that you can ask a follow-up without having to say the wake phrase again.

This feature, called Continued Conversation, had been available only in English on the Assistant-powered speakers, but the feature has expanded to all supported languages. If you have security cameras, you can use Gemini to ask specifically about anything the cameras might have seen, like “Did FedEx drop a package off today?” or “Did the dog eat a cookie off the counter?” You don't need the Google Home Speaker for this specific feature—if you've opted into Gemini for your existing Google Home, it's already available—though its inclusion here is a nice convenience. As for what Gemini sounds like, there are 10 voices to choose from.

You can also trigger Gemini Live—while Gemini expanded to older smart speakers last fall, this “Live” capability is restricted to newer devices like the Nest Audio and Google Home Speaker. Enter this mode by saying, “Hey Google, let's talk,” and you can have a back-and-forth conversation with Gemini; no need to pause and say the wake word. Why this matters: The new Google Home Speaker with Gemini assistant marks a significant upgrade to Google's smart home offerings.