Google hints at new smart display

Last week, Google not only presented Gemini for the smart home but also new hardware in the form of smart surveillance cameras and a smart speaker. However, the company did not say anything about a successor to the Nest hub—Googles Smart Display—during the announcement. According to Google Home Chief Product Officer Anish Kattukaran, the company has not written off the product category, and there will be “news on this soon.”

Smart displays “an important component”

In the podcast “Vergecast” from the US tech magazine The Verge, Kattukaran said that smart displays are an important part of Google's plans. “[The smart display] presents itself as an incredibly convenient device for interacting with something like Gemini for Home. However, if you think about the features of a smart display—a microphone, i.e., audio input—and a speaker, i.e., audio output. It has a screen that complements the voice control; you can interact with it and visualize information,” said the Google manager.

He said that there are also cameras in smart displays, “which add the aspect of vision to Gemini's multimodality.” According to him, a smart display is the ideal form factor “for Gemini for Home and Gemini in general” to “provide a really great experience for the home.”

The last smart display was introduced by Google in 2021. The so-called Nest Hub has a 7-inch display, speaker, and microphone for listening to music or interacting with the Google Assistant. In the future, the Gemini for Home smart speaker will receive—the AI chatbot for the smart home is not due to arrive in Germany until 2026. A special feature of the 2021 smart speaker was the Soli sensor, a mini radar that was first installed in the Pixel 4. The sensor was integrated for sleep tracking, among other things. A camera was not installed.

As Kattukaran suggests, a camera is likely to be integrated in the next generation of smart displays. In addition, the next device will no longer run under the Nest brand but will probably simply be called Google Home Hub. This is because Google only gives this name to its smart cameras and thermostats. The Google manager did not say when the next smart display will actually appear.

Tentative smart home strategy

Since the introduction of the last smart display, Google has tried new approaches to smart home control with the Pixel Tablet released in 2023 and the Google TV Streamer presented in 2024. However, like the streamer, the tablet and dock offered too few functions to function as a fully-fledged smart home center. Google has already cancelled its big tablet ambitions for now after the Pixel Tablet.

While Google is taking a rather cautious approach to the next generation of Gemini for Home hardware, Amazon is going all out: At the end of September, the retailer unveiled a large portfolio of new products such as smart speakers and smart displays for the new AI chatbot Alexa Plus, which should be available from the end of October. Like Gemini for Home, Amazon's AI assistant Alexa Plus is only available as “early access” in the USA; it is still unclear when it will arrive in Europe and therefore also in Germany. However, Amazon has made it clear that Alexa Plus will also be available in this country at some point.

(afl)