Google Gemini For Home review

Google Gemini for Home: Getting Started

It’s clear that voice assistants need to get smarter. Powered by GenAI, interactions that require specific phrases or word order are eliminated in favor of natural speech. Amazon Alexa+ has set the gold standard, and its main competitor at the moment is Google Gemini For Home.

Powered by Google’s AI, this system has access to all of your company’s search data, making it the best of the best. Is this the system that will put Google Home back on the map, or should you walk away from it?My review says it all.

availability

Google Gemini For Home is currently rolling out as an upgrade to products with compatible smart speakers. These are the latest Google Home speakers, Nest Hub (both versions), Nest Audio, Nest Mini, and Nest Hub Max.

That’s nearly all of Google’s speakers released in the last seven years, so if you have a Home speaker, you’re likely to get Gemini for Home.

In addition to the free version of Google Gemini for Home, there is also a paid subscription alternative to Nest Aware. With this move, Google seems intent on removing all mention of Nest from its smart home portfolio.

Google Home Premium Standard ($10/£8/month or $100/£80/year) also includes 30 days of video history, intelligent alerts, Gemini Live, and in-app help for creating automations. Google Home Premium Advanced ($20/£16/month or $200/£160/year) extends video history to 60 days, adds 24/7 recording for wired products, AI-powered video search, and descriptive notifications.

When you buy a new Google Home speaker, you get 6 months of Google Home Premium Standard.

Conversation and general information

One of the great things about Amazon Alexa+ is that it’s tailored to work in a variety of countries outside of the United States. This means that it is programmed to understand the local dialect and respond in an appropriate manner.

The same cannot be said for Google Gemini for Home. First, ask what you can do (OK Google, what can you do?). One of the suggestions was to try setting the thermostat to 72. It’s fine if I’m in the US, but Gemini knows I’m in the UK and setting the thermostat to that level is insane. The temperature should have been shown in degrees Celsius.

Natural language is Gemini for Home’s forte. Ask if there are any good days for BBQ and you will get a suitable answer. Or find out when your football team (Spurs) will play next.

We also answer common questions such as whether a particular subway line is running, who starred in a movie, and even who England played in the 2018 World Cup semi-finals.

Similar to Alexa+, you can continue asking more questions to narrow down your results without having to repeat the entire question. Gemini for Home understands natural conversations.

Gemini for Home is starting to go downhill in some small ways. For example, when I first upgraded to Gemini for Home, I told my wife that she was a vegetarian. I then asked Gemini to recommend a chicken dish for me and my wife. He did so right away.

A few days later, after asking the same question, Gemini told me that his wife is a vegetarian, so the suggestion was either no chicken or an option where you could add one serving of chicken at the end.

Wow, I thought Gemini learned. However, after leaving it alone for a few weeks and trying again, the Gemini forgot that his wife is a vegetarian. However, that is not the case. If you ask a Gemini what he knows about my wife, he will give you a note that she is a vegetarian.

Then asking for recipe recommendations works well for a while, including vegetarian options. After a while, Gemini will forget to look up this information. This is frustrating, especially since Alexa+ is very good at remembering what you say, tweaking the results every time.

The trick to spotting the AI ​​is to ask how many letters are in a particular word. I asked Gemini, “How many ‘M’s” are there in the word mammal? The answer was, “The word mammal has 3 megaseconds.”

Gemini for Home seems to have misunderstood the question, and its response doesn’t make sense. Trying to clarify what I had heard, I asked, “How many megaseconds does the word mammal mean?”

Gemini replied, “That’s a bit of a trick question. Megasecond is a unit of time, not a word related to the spelling of mammal. As we discussed, the word mammal contains three megaseconds, and one megasecond is exactly one million seconds. Would you like to know more about how time is measured?”

This is just nonsense spewed out by the AI ​​that generates the words. Gemini for Home should check what you are about to say and ask for clarification if it doesn’t make sense.

Gemini for Home is pretty basic on smart displays like the older Nest Hub (2).^n.d. Gen). The display is only used to display the full text of the response on a plain white background, rather than displaying images or additional information on the screen. Google really needs to improve.

local business search

Local information is also generally better than Alexa+. When you ask Alexa+ about local French restaurants, it recommends restaurants that closed several years ago. When Gemini for Home was asked the same question, it initially thought I was in Leytonstone and gave the wrong result. But I corrected myself that I was in Wanstead and recommended Provendor, the best French restaurant for miles.

There’s no integrated functionality for reserving a table at a restaurant, so once you have the information you’ll need your phone or laptop to do anything.

documents, calendars, etc.

Gemini for Home works with Gmail calendars unless they are from a Workspace (paid) account. Unfortunately, other calendars are not supported. I was able to easily create events and have Gemini check my upcoming schedule, and everything went well.

It’s a shame that Gemini for Home currently cannot send photos or PDFs and understand the data inside them. With Alexa+, you can send a letter from school, for example, or automatically create calendar events and reminders.

I asked Gemini if ​​she could read PDFs and she suggested I upload the information to chat. My smart speaker doesn’t have an upload option so I asked how I could do it. Gemini said you can’t do that, but you can try reading the PDF out loud. No, thank you.

smart home

Voice control works much like older voice assistants, so you can turn on your lights, control your thermostat, and turn off your smart plugs. However, Gemini for Home is not as fast as Alexa+. In some cases, commands may take several seconds to execute, and your system may feel sluggish.

Natural language certainly improves things. I can combine multiple requests into one command (turn on lights, set AC to 21°C, turn off printer) and everything works fine.

However, some of the more complex instructions will not work. I asked my Gemini to turn on the office lights and turn them off again after 5 minutes. Now the light came on, but I had a timer set and it just chimed when the light went out.

There’s also no option to create voice-based routines, which you can do with Alexa+. I don’t know why Google didn’t implement this.

Some requests were a bit random in how they were implemented. I have a room set up in my Google Home app and have placed my Google Home speaker correctly in my office, along with all the smart devices in that room, including lights and misting fans.

I said, “OK Google, it’s hot in here.” Alexa+ turns on the fan in response to that command. Gemini only responded when the air conditioning was turned on at a test lab a few miles away. I repeated the request and this time the fan turned on, but I don’t understand why the initial response was so wrong.

final thoughts

General interactions with Gemini for Home have been greatly improved. This system works very well if you need answers to common questions, want to search for local businesses, or want to add calendar events. It’s nice to see support going back to the earliest smart speakers and displays.

What Gemini for Home misses is in the details. I had a hard time remembering the information I gave unless I was prompted again. It sometimes behaves strangely when asked to control a smart device. It can spout utter nonsense. Information cannot be retrieved from photos or PDF files. The smart display experience is boring. And there are often significant delays. As it stands, Alexa+ is the world leader and the system I use at home.

Test method

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