It’s about time Google showed its smart home ecosystem some much needed love

Google is launching a slew of devices this month at its big Pixel event, including a pair of smartwatches and four Pixel handsets, counting a foldable phone that is slated to be far more refined than its predecessor. While it’s good that Pixel hardware is thriving, in classic Google fashion, the company neglected its other offerings. I’m referring to its Nest smart speaker lineup, which has been on a downward trend.

In this era of generative AI, Nest speakers could use a Gemini boost to earn their place among the best smart speakers, but the reality is that Google hasn’t updated a lot of its hardware in several years. Meanwhile, the software has also taken a toll, breaking the experience even for existing users. That said, Google can finally redeem itself by making amends and pulling a rabbit out of its hat at the Pixel event.

Nest speakers are still nestling

No new skills are making them stupid

Time and again, we’ve seen Google put a lot of its products and services on the back burner when it finds something new to play with. It happened more recently when it went all in on generative AI and brought over teams from other departments to help with its new fixation. Amidst all this, Google didn’t launch new smart speakers, but what’s worse is it made its existing products worse in more ways than one.

If you make a quick stroll through the Google Home subreddit, you’ll find tons of users complaining about how their Home and Nest speakers have gone to tatters, and their experience deteriorated. For me personally, my Home Mini often fails to recognize the correct request on the first try, even in a silent room. On other occasions, it executes the command while claiming it can’t connect to the concerned service.

Let’s not forget all the features Google has dropped from its speaker range, like how you can’t make video calls using the Nest Hub Max anymore, which should be a huge bummer for those who invested in a smart screen specifically for this feature. Beyond that, Google has even left third-party smart screens completely unusable.

Gemini + Nest speakers = 🤯

Nope, the Pixel Tablet doesn’t cut it

With ChatGPT, you can have virtually endless conversations with your chatbot without it losing context, while also asking it to generate stuff for you. Compared to that, Google Home interactions can feel decidedly silly. Sure, responses from a smart speaker don’t need to be verbose, but they should have a better understanding of our languages and accents, if only so we don’t always need to get the voice command exactly right.

Google has been busy rebranding Google Assistant to Gemini, bringing an arguably more futuristic voice assistant to our phones, but there are a lot of other devices that desperately need a similar upgrade, and the first ones should absolutely be Nest smart speakers.

Gemini won’t only enhance how we talk to our smart speakers by making them more conversational, but it will also make smart screens more interactive with their surroundings. However, all those impressive capabilities would require new hardware, which doesn’t seem high on Google’s priority list.

Alexa, ask Google to do something about it

The competition isn’t as complacent

You’ll notice that Amazon’s range of Echo devices are already multiple generations into their existence. The latest Echo Dot has a temperature sensor built in, while its other model comes with a digital clock on the front. Plus, there are a handful of Alexa-powered smart screens available, including an Echo alarm clock. Amazon maintains an annual hardware update cycle while trying new form factors — that’s how you innovate.

Meanwhile, Google hasn’t launched a new Nest Hub since 2021, while the Nest Mini launched in 2019. It’s worth noting that in the world of smart speakers, software iterations matter more than new hardware, but continuously working on new products shows a company’s commitment, or in Google’s case, lack thereof. And no, the Pixel Tablet doesn’t count as a smart home device since it’s a tablet first.

The result of the Nest speakers’ worsening software experience and the lack of new products is that people are switching away from Google’s ecosystem. One of my colleagues and a close friend of mine have moved to Alexa because they weren’t willing to put up with Google’s lackluster strategy.

Fingers crossed for Google’s ta-da moment

I want to be surprised the exact way I say

At the Pixel stage in a couple of weeks, I want Google to have its own ‘one more thing’ moment after being done with Pixel announcements; Google CEO Sundar Pichai walks out, making a showy reveal with a desk full of new Nest smart speakers and displays. What I want to see are a refreshed Nest Mini, Nest Audio, Nest Hub, Nest Hub Max, and even a smaller alarm clock with a screen — the whole shebang!

One of the reasons I’m hopeful is because some Nest hardware leaked a few months ago, so a spruced-up Nest Audio and Nest Hub Max could really be on the cards. Moreover, Google has already announced a new Google TV streaming box and a Nest thermostat, indicating light at the end of the tunnel.

Lastly, I’m just an optimistic being. I want Google to make better and more smart home hardware, so I get some reassurance that it wasn’t a wrong decision to stick to Google’s smart home ecosystem. For better or worse, we’ll find out soon enough.

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  Google TV Streamer

  The Google TV Streamer is a new set-top streaming device from Google that improves upon the Chromecast 4K. It boasts Dolby Vision, which should offer a wider range of colors and deeper blacks when viewing supported content, and even doubles as a smart home hub with Thread support and Matter compatibility. With AI smarts in tow, the device can curate content based on your preferences across all of your subscriptions, and organize them conveniently in one place.

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  Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen)