After being rumored for a while now, the new Google Home app is now official. And like every other Google product, it’s also now powered by Gemini for a faster and smarter AI component, which can work better amongst devices and provide a better overall experience.
The new Home app opens 70% faster, live views load 30% faster, and 40% fewer playback failures. Navigating the Home app gets simplified with 3 tabs at the bottom, with the Home tab (overview), Activity tab (complete history of events from connected devices), and Automations tab (speaks for itself). Nest functions will continue to work within the new Home app and won’t require using 2 apps. However, the Nest app isn’t going anywhere — for now.
And you might ask, where does Gemini fit into all of this? Outside of powering the app, you can use it to access Ask Home. This can be used to ask Gemini what happened throughout the day via your video history, ask about a specific event, and more. Yes, you’ll need to pay for a Google Home subscription to access this feature. Yes, Google has replaced Nest Aware with 2 tiers of Google Home Premium subscription plans of Standard ($10 monthly) and Advanced ($20 monthly).
The Standard plan provides 30 days of video history, intelligent alerts, Gemini Live access, sound detection, emergency calling via Home app, and Gemini-assisted home automations. The Advanced plan adds to the Standard option with 60 days of video history, 10 days of 24/7 video history, descriptive notifications, the option to search specific events in your history, and daily summaries.
The new app will begin rolling out today and will support devices from the last decade, so you’re not pressured to upgrade your hardware.
