New Google Home Speaker Coming this Week

The new Google Home Speaker could be coming this week! 

Late last year, during Google's Made by Google event, Google teased the next update to the Google Home with a new Google Home Speaker. Many, including myself, noticed it first in the video starring Giannis Antetokounmpo, star power forward for the Milwaukee Bucks, and Lando Norris, star Formula 1 driver.  

The timing lines up perfectly with the recent "Gemini for Home" email blast, hinting that an official announcement is imminent. A hardware refresh is long overdue, but the real story will be how deeply integrated Gemini is. Will this finally give us the seamless, intelligent ambient assistant we’ve been waiting for? We should have our answers by the end of the week. Here's the email:

Hi there,

I’m Anish, and I lead the team here at Google Home & Nest.

I’m writing to you from my living room, surrounded by the same speakers, displays, thermostats and cameras in many of your homes. With over 100 of my own smart home devices connected around me and my family, I am deeply aware of the incredible potential and occasional inconveniences of smart home life.

When we introduced Gemini for Home in early access last October, our goal was to build more than a voice assistant; we wanted to create a conversational partner that intuitively fits into the daily rhythms of your life. Over 3.5 million of you opted in to early access to test it, and you didn't just try out features; you opened up a direct line to our engineering team to tell us exactly what was working, where there was friction, and what you needed next.

Feedback from early access users has helped fuel regular updates almost every other week, over 2,500 bug fixes, expansions to 20 countries in 10 languages and made the entire system a lot more responsive and better at handling complex requests. We’ve rolled out over 50 major feature updates including Continued Conversation and upgraded media controls, all leveraging the latest Gemini models from Google.

Beyond improving how Gemini talks to you, we’ve also made progress across Google Home. We’ve made the app faster, enhanced the camera experience, expanded automation capabilities, and shipped new partner tools to improve third-party device reliability.

As a product builder, I know our work is not done! And I want to thank you for being on this journey with us and for pushing us to be better every single day. Please keep the feedback coming—the team and I read all of it (even if we can’t respond to every note personally).

Cheers,
Anish Kattukaran
Chief Product Officer, Google Home & Nest

P.S. And for those of you who have been patiently waiting for a certain speaker... keep a very close eye on your inbox next week. :)

My journey with Google Home hasn't been perfect, but it's the best that's currently out and has actually gotten a lot better since Gemini has been implemented in the Home. I'll be picking up a few of these new speakers to replace my aging Nest Minis that still work well for me, despite other people across the web having issues. I'll probably hand them down to my parents.