Although Google just put the Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold on sale, much of the news coming from the tech giant recently is about Gemini, its AI assistant.
For fans of smart home, there’s good news as not only is Gemini for Home coming (you can sign up for early access now) and a new Home Speaker launching next spring, but it seems a new generation of smart display is also on the way with Gemini on board.
During the briefing for its new smart speaker and Nest cameras, Google’s Anish Kattukaran, director of product management for Google Home and Nest, told our sister site TechHive that Google is “deeply committed to that category and we will have more to share next year.”
Delaying the Home Speaker to Spring 2026 is a “very deliberate and intentional choice”, says Kattukaran, in order to “perfect” Gemini for Home on its existing smart speakers and displays.
It seems that there’s a good chance a new Nest Hub (or two) could launch at, or around, the same time.
Chris Martin / Foundry
Since then, Kattukaran has shared more details with The Verge, reiterating the commitment while adding the company will “have news to share there soon,” which sounds earlier than next year, though we’ll have to see.
He said that smart displays are “almost the ultimate form factor to be able to deliver a really great home experience” thanks to their combination of hardware.
“if you think about the properties of a smart display — a microphone, which means audio in, a speaker, audio out. It’s got a screen, which complements a voice modality, you can interact with it and visualize information,” Kattukaran said.
The move makes sense given how intent Google is to get Gemini equipped on just about every kind of device under the sun and new models have been a long time coming, considering the Nest Hub Max launched way back in 2019 and the Next Hub (gen 2) in 2021.
Gemini may run on those old devices, but new ones are likely needed for the optimal experience. Google may even hold back some features for them, but either way, it should hurry up since Amazon just launched a refreshed range of rival Echo Show smart displays with Alexa+.
