The decision
Google Home Gemini is easier to talk to than the old assistant, it understands natural language well. For general questions, like who played a movie or nearby restaurants, it works very well. Get into complex environments, and the experience is generally poor: Gemini can do random things when asked to control a smart home; cannot create or manage automation; cannot understand data from images or PDFs; often forgets information you have asked it to remember; it can produce nonsense; and it can be slow. At the moment, Gemini Home is lagging far behind Alexa+.
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Works with older speakers
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It handles common questions well
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It allows you to combine many smart home commands in one sentence
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It forgets the information you asked it to remember
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Cannot extract data from PDFs
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The answers can often be strange
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Cannot create default
Google Gemini Home: An Introduction
It is clear that voice assistants need creativity. Interactions that require a specific sentence or word order are out, and natural speech is in, powered by GenAI. As Amazon Alexa+ sets the gold standard, its main competition is currently Google Gemini Home.
Powered by Google’s AI, the program, with access to all of the company’s search data, should be the best. Is this the system that puts Google Home back on the map, or should you move away from it? My review tells it all.
Availability
Google Gemini Home is rolling out now as a way to upgrade those with compatible smart speakers. These are the speakers for the new Google Home, Nest Hub (both versions), Nest Audio, Nest Mini and Nest Hub Max.
That’s the best of all Google speakers released in the last seven years, so there’s a good chance that if you have a Home speaker, you’ll be able to get a Gemini Home.
In addition to the free version of Google Gemini Home, there is also a paid subscription, which also replaces Nest Aware. In this move, Google seems determined to remove all mention of Nest from its smart home portfolio.
Google Home Premium Standard ($10/£8 per month or $100/£80 per year) also includes 30 days of video history, smart alerts, Gemini Live, and in-app help and auto-creation. Google Home Premium Advanced ($20/£16 per month or $200/£160 per year) increases video history to 60 days, and adds 24/7 recording for wired products, AI-powered video search and descriptive notifications.
Buy a new Google Home speaker and get six months of Google Home Premium Standard.
Discussions and general information
One of the things that makes Amazon Alexa+ so great is that it’s open to work in different countries outside of the US. That means it’s programmed to understand dialects, and respond accordingly.
I can’t say the same thing about Google Gemini Home. Start by asking what it can do (Ok Google, what can you do?), and one of the suggestions was to try setting the thermostat to 72. It’s fine if you’re in the US, but Gemini knows I’m in the UK, and setting the thermostat to that level would be crazy. It really should have raised the temperature to Celsius.
Domestic Gemini is fluent in natural language. I would ask if there is a good day for BBQ, and get the right answer. Or, I can find out when my soccer team (Spurs) is playing next.
It will also provide answers to common questions, such as whether a certain Tube line works, who played the lead role in the film, or even who England played in the 2018 World Cup semi-finals.
Like Alexa+, I can follow other queries to refine the results, all without repeating the full query. Home Gemini understands natural conversation.
Home Gemini starts to get down to little details. For example, when I first upgraded to Gemini Yekhaya, I told her that my wife was a vegetarian. I then asked Gemini to recommend a chicken dish for me and my wife, and he did right away.
A few days later, the same question led Gemini to tell me that my wife was a vegetarian, so the suggestions did not contain chicken or options where chicken could be added at the end of one portion.
That’s good, I thought, Gemini has learned. But, leave it for a few weeks and try again, and Gemini has forgotten that my wife is a vegetarian. Only, it didn’t happen. Ask Gemini what he knows about my wife, and he reveals a note saying he will eat vegetables.
After that, asking for cooking recommendations works well for a while, with vegetarian options; after some time, Gemini forgets to look for this information. It’s frustrating, especially since Alexa+ is so good at remembering what you say, fine-tuning its results each time.
A trick to catch the AI is to ask how many letters are in a given word. I asked Gemini, “How many ‘Misses’ are there in the word mammal?” The answer was, “There are three megaseconds in the word mammal.”
I get that Gemini Home misunderstood the question, but his answer doesn’t make sense. I tried to make sense of what I heard and asked, “How many megaseconds are in the word mammal?”
Gemini said, “That’s a tricky question. A megasecond is a unit of time, not a word related to the spelling of a mammal. As we discussed, there are three megaseconds in the word mammal, and a megasecond is exactly one millionth of a second. Would you like to know more about how time scales work?”
This is just nonsense uttered by an AI that generates words. Home Gemini really needs to check what it says and ask for clarification if its results don’t make sense.
The Gemini Home is very basic to a smart display, like my old Nest Hub (2n.d Gen). Rather than putting images and additional information on the screen, the display is simply used to show the full text of the answer on a plain white background. Google really needs to do better.
Local business search
Local information is generally better than Alexa+, too. Asking Alexa+ about local French restaurants recommends one that closed years ago. Home Gemini, when asked the same question, first thought I was in Leytonstone, so it gave the wrong results. However, I corrected it to say I was in Wanstead, and it recommended Provender, which is the best French restaurant by miles.
There’s no integration for booking a table at the restaurant, so once you’re in the know, you’ll still need your phone or laptop to do anything.
Documents, calendars and more
Gemini Home will work with a Gmail calendar, as long as it’s not from a (paid) Workplace account. Some calendars are not supported, which is a shame. I could create events easily enough or get Gemini to test my upcoming program, which all worked well.
It’s a shame that Gemini Home currently can’t be sent an image or PDF and make sense of the data in it. With Alexa+ I can send letters from school, for example, and have it automatically create calendar events and reminders.
I asked Gemini if it could read a PDF, and it suggested uploading the information to chat. Since there is no option to upload to the smart speaker, I asked how to do that. Gemini said I can’t, but I can try to read the PDF out loud. No thanks.
A smart home
Voice control usually works in the same way as the old voice assistant, so I can turn on the lights, control the thermostat or turn off the smart plug. I don’t find Gemini Home as fast as Alexa+, though. Sometimes commands can take a few seconds to execute, and the system feels sluggish.
Natural language makes other things better. I can combine multiple requests into one command (turn on a light, set the AC to 21°C and turn off the printer), and everything works fine.
But some more complex instructions don’t work. I asked Gemini to turn on my office light and turn it off again after five minutes. This turned on the light, but set a timer that just played a chime when it ran out.
There’s also no option to perform voice commands, which Alexa+ can do. I’m not sure why Google hasn’t done this yet.
Some requests were also unreasonable in how they were made. My Google Home app is set up by rooms, and I’ve properly placed my Google Home Speaker in the office, along with all the smart devices in that room, including the lights and the damn fan.
I said, “OK Google, it’s hot in here.” Alexa+ responds to that command by turning on the fan. Gemini responded first by turning on the AC in the test lab, miles away. I applied again and this time my follower opened, but I don’t know why the first answer was wrong.
Final thoughts
Regular interaction with Gemini Home is a big improvement. If you’re looking for an answer to a general question, finding local businesses or adding a calendar appointment, the system works great. It’s good to see that support is returning to smart speakers and displays, too.
It’s in detail where the Gemini Home misses. It was difficult to remember the details I had told him, unless I was told again; sometimes it does strange things when asked to control a smart device; it can produce complete nonsense; cannot find information in images or PDF files; The smart display experience is nothing; and it can often feel loose. As it stands, Alexa+ is ahead of the curve, and the app I use at home.
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Frequently Asked Questions
It will work with all Nest Hub smart displays, Nest mini, Nest Audio, and the Google Home speaker.