Last time Google published a smart speakerthe world was in the grip of a pandemic. Yes, it’s been six years since the company offered a dedicated speaker.
However, this new Google Home speaker brings a big change: the device has been redesigned to feature the new Twins are helpers instead of Google Assistant which powered all previous smart speakers and displays.
Google announced the speaker last fall alongside the new Nest smart home cameras and video doorbells, promising a spring 2026 launch. Summer is already well underway, but it’s finally time to go.
The company announced today that pre-orders for the Google Home Speaker will begin on June 17 and official sales will begin on June 25. It costs $100 and is available in Berry, Jade, Hazel, and Porcelain, although the first two colors are exclusive to the United States.
The experience of using it should feel familiar if you own other smart speakers. You wake up Gemini through the “Hello, Google” hot word and ask it questions. But Gemini is much better than the old Google Assistant at understanding a natural conversation, so your queries don’t 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 a mistake in your initial request, you can stop and rephrase your question halfway 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.
Courtesy of Google
You can string together multiple commands in a single sentence, and Gemini should be able to take care of it. You can be super specific – turn off all the lights except my bedside lamp – and it will analyze it. You can request follow-up conversations without having to bring up the original context again; As with Google Assistant speakers, the microphone stays on for a brief window after Gemini answers a question so you can ask for a follow-up without having to repeat the wake-up phrase. This feature, called Continued Conversation, was only available in English on speakers with Assistant, but it has been expanded to all supported languages.
If you have security camerasyou can use Gemini to ask specific questions about anything the cameras may have seen, like “Did FedEx drop off a package 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 have enabled Gemini for your existing Google Homeit is already available, although its inclusion here is very convenient.
As for the Gemini sound, there are 10 voices to choose from. You can also trigger Gemini Live– while Gemini expanded to older smart speakers last fall, this “Live” feature is limited to newer devices like Nest Audio and Google Home Speaker. Enter this mode by saying “Hey Google, let’s talk” and you can have a conversation with Gemini; no need to pause and say the wake-up word.
The caveat is that the Gemini Live experience is only available if you subscribe to Google Home Premium. (Anyone who buys the Google Home Speaker gets six months of this service for free.) Other subscription benefits include the ability to easily set up automations with natural language, 30 days of video event history, and smarter notifications from security cameras. (There is another Advanced level that unlocks even more.)
The Jade color of the Google Home Speaker makes me want to slice it and eat it.
Courtesy of Google
Anish Kattukaran, director of product at Google Nest and Google Home, says the speaker uses local models that better isolate sound, meaning the Google Home speaker will filter out background noise to better identify when you’re talking to it. Also new is a bright ring of lights at the base of the speaker that illuminates the surface around it, making it easier to identify when the speaker is listening or responding to a request.
(Google seems to be bringing back this type of LED visual indicators. Its next Googlebooks platform will have dedicated light bars, and rumors indicate its upcoming Pixel phones could feature something similar.)
The Google Home Speaker’s orb design, much like Amazon’s new one Echo speakers and the aging of Apple HomePod Minioffers 360-degree “balanced” sound. It also allows you to place the speaker anywhere in the room, and it should still deliver robust audio quality, even in locations that aren’t acoustically ideal. Kattukaran also claims that the company intentionally designed it to be significantly more compact than the previous one. Nest Audioso it’s easier to find a place for him to sit. But ultimately, this is a smaller speaker, so the audio quality probably won’t be as good as larger speakers. Instead, Google says the Home Speaker is a “massive audio upgrade” over the smaller Nest Mini, with a speaker twice the size and much more powerful bass.
The bottom of the Google Home speaker has a ring of LEDs that indicate when the speaker is listening or thinking. Lights are visible around the base of the speaker.
Courtesy of Google
You can pair two Google Home speakers with the company’s Google TV Streamer for an approximation of surround sound, although this feature isn’t yet available for other products, like TVs with Google TV built-in, which appear to be able to support such integration. You can still create speaker groups in the Google Home app and stream music or podcasts to the speaker, just like with the company’s older products.
The speaker supports the Thread And Material standardsso you can use it as a hub to set up other Matter-enabled smart home devices. (It supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4.) There are capacitive touch controls on the top, three far-field microphones for talking to Gemini, and, best of all, a hardware mute switch so Gemini can’t eavesdrop.
Kattukaran says that since Google opened early access to Gemini in Google Home last fall, more than 3.5 million households have opted into the experience in 20 countries and more than 10 languages. This also means the company received “tons of feedback” and provided over 2,500 bug fixes to Gemini and Google Home. Overall, Kattukaran says, Google is focused on faster updates to deliver fixes and new features and that most people engage twice as much with Gemini as they do with Google Assistant. Part of this could be due to a period of decline with Assistant, when several features were discontinued during Google’s transition to Gemini.
Apple is expected to launch a revamped smart speaker later this year, now that the company appears to have finally found a way to improve Siri. And with Alexa+ is still rolling out globally to Echo devices, 10 years later they startedthe smart speaker wars are heating up again.
