Google’s Home App, A Command Center For The Smart Home, Gets A Gemini Upgrade

Google admits that its Google Home app for managing smart location devices has not offered nan champion experience, and it now intends to alteration that. On Wednesday, alongside caller Nest devices and an upcoming Google Home smart speaker, nan tech elephantine besides unveiled a redesigned type of nan Google Home app that it promises will activity better, centralize instrumentality management, and bring its AI adjunct Gemini AI into nan experience.

While AI whitethorn beryllium nan header characteristic astir what’s caller pinch nan Google Home app, nan app itself has had an overhaul, successful design, performance, and reliability, Google claims.

“I want to beryllium very direct, nan Google Home app has not been nan acquisition that we’ve ever wanted it to be,” Anish Kattukaran, Chief Product Officer astatine Google Home and Nest, told reporters successful a briefing up of today’s news.

So earlier nan institution could activity connected adding caller AI features, it had to lick nan app’s different problems, he said.

Image Credits:Google

“Number 1 was performance,” he said. “Performance is decidedly a journey. We are not astatine nan destination…It’s sewage to proceed to evolve.”

Over nan past respective months, Google says it’s made immoderate awesome improvements, starring to 70% faster startup, 80% less crashes, and different artillery and representation improvements. Over nan past year, it’s besides shipped complete 100 capacity updates and app features to nan app, which coming useful crossed complete 800 cardinal devices from much than 50,000-plus OEMs, meaning companies that make devices compatible pinch Google Home. (Google had announced support for 750 cardinal devices astatine its developer convention backmost successful May 2025).

Image Credits:Google

Nest comes ‘Home’

In addition, nan institution is moving to make nan Google Home app nan only app Nest users request to negociate their devices, much than a decade aft nan company’s 2014 acquisition of nan instrumentality maker. Over nan years that followed, Google has slow and iteratively been bringing Nest app features to Google Home, and now feels that travel is complete. (The Nest app isn’t going distant conscionable yet, but Nest instrumentality owners should beryllium fresh for that eventual future.)

In position of devices, nan app now supports Nest thermostats from 2015 onward, including their schedules, power history, and basking h2o boost features. It besides supports Nest cameras and doorbells (including migrating their history), Nest Protect’s emergency notifications for fume and CO alerts, and Nest’s passcode guidance for nan Nest x Yale Locks.

Image Credits:Google

With nan attraction connected Nest, nan Google Home app is improving camera features, including a amended scrubbing acquisition for moving done video, a faster and smoother camera feed, and richer animated previews connected iOS and Android notifications. Google says camera unrecorded views load 30% faster than earlier and it decreased playback failures by 40%.

Camera tiles besides load instantly, and scrolling done nan camera’s history is smoother pinch a much than 6x higher framework rate, Google claims.

The updated Google Home app now has conscionable 3 tabs for simplicity’s sake: Home, Activity, and Automation.

Image Credits:Google

Plus, it added support for gestures, meaning you could swipe connected nan Home tab to move betwixt each devices and favourite devices, aliases to move done various dashboards. You tin besides swipe to move astir wrong nan camera view, for illustration swiping down to spot nan afloat camera view, up to exit, aliases near and correct to toggle betwixt nan timeline position and nan events view.

On nan video player, you tin double-tap connected nan near aliases correct to rewind aliases fast-forward, arsenic you tin connected YouTube.

Event notifications connected iOS aliases Android now expand, showing rich, animated previews, making it easier to spot what’s happening astatine location from your smartphone’s fastener screen. AI tin besides summarize nan activity straight successful nan alerts and successful your camera history, truthful alternatively of seeing “motion detected,” you’ll spot what activity really took place.

Image Credits:Google

The Google Home app’s Activity tab showcases nan activity history for your full home, including devices that are not made by Google aliases Nest. At nan apical of nan tab is simply a caller AI-powered “Home Brief” feature, which uses Gemini to summarize things that happened successful nan location that day, redeeming you from reference done hours of alerts and events.

Image Credits:Google

To find circumstantial events, you tin usage nan included filters aliases conscionable “Ask Home” — nan second being a caller measurement to interact pinch Gemini done nan app.

This hunt and thief characteristic is persistently accessible from nan caller header navigation successful Google Home, and will propose related devices and automations arsenic you statesman to type things in, for illustration “lights” aliases “living room,” for instance.

You tin usage nan Gemini AI to inquire questions astir your location utilizing earthy language, inquire for a circumstantial camera clip, power aggregate devices astatine once, and create automations conscionable by describing them, among different things. This lets Gemini reply questions for illustration “when did nan kids travel home?” aliases “did I time off nan car doorway open?”, for example.

Image Credits:Google

When you’re viewing camera events, nan AI tin besides picture nan activity nan camera sees, explaining what caused mobility successful nan location and wherever it was located. This AI explanation appears beneath nan video clip.

Image Credits:Google

Some AI features — for illustration utilizing Gemini to make location automations by describing them, nan Home Brief, and Ask Home — require a Google Home Premium subscription, however. This starts astatine $10 per month, but entree is included pinch Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions astatine nary other charge.

Image Credits:Google

On nan Google Home app’s Automation tab, users won’t only spot their database of automations but besides what’s going to hap complete nan adjacent mates of hours successful nan location via a caller carousel astatine nan apical of nan screen.

The tab, antecedently an embedded web view, is besides now natively built into iOS and Android, Google notes, for amended performance. The Automations editor has been redesigned, too, allowing for caller options for one-time and conditional automations.

Image Credits:Google

Gemini besides allows users to summation insights astir their home, for illustration specifications astir their power use. You tin inquire astir things for illustration really agelong nan AC ran for past week, aliases really agelong nan TV was utilized complete nan weekend, among different things.

The Google Home 4.0 app update will commencement rolling retired to world users connected October 1 and will proceed complete nan coming days until it reaches each users.

To get nan update first, Google says to unfastened nan Google Home app, click your floor plan icon, past pat connected “Home Settings.” Scroll down and prime “Early Access” to subordinate nan test.