Google Home and Nest speakers and displays as we know them may be doomed if the company’s recent Google Assistant deprecations are any indication. Google Assistant is rapidly losing features as Google puts more time and effort into Gemini, its AI-based chatbot and assistant. Just this week, Google announced plans to remove seven more features from Google Assistant in the future, following up the 18 features that were lost in early 2024.
As such, it’s not an understatement to call the Google Assistant a shell of its former self. That isn’t as much of an issue on smartphones and tablets, as Gemini serves as a better virtual assistant in many cases. When Gemini falls short, Android phones and tablets can take advantage of Assistant extensions to fill the gap. In fact, rumors point to Gemini replacing the Google Assistant on smartwatches via a future Wear OS update, too.
There’s just one problem — Gemini can’t replace the Google Assistant on the smart home devices that need it most. Google hasn’t refreshed its smart displays, including the second-generation Nest Hub and the Nest Hub Max, since 2021. It hasn’t updated the Google Nest Mini smart speaker since 2019. That reality means that the affordable and aging Nest smart speakers and displays could be left without critical Assistant features and unable to run Gemini effectively.
Google quietly set a precedent for how it plans to get Gemini on smart home products last year, and it’s bad news for fans of Nest hardware. The company completely killed the affordable Chromecast lineup in favor of the $100 Google TV Streamer, which will soon get Gemini Live and other AI features.
With Google seemingly winding down Assistant and putting a greater focus on Gemini, I’m worried that the Nest lineup could share a similar fate. The company could shift toward more expensive (and powerful) smart home controllers, like the Pixel Tablet, which can better handle Gemini. That would be a mistake because Google Assistant is the perfect piece of software to run on affordable and lightweight smart home products.
Google Nest speakers and displays are borderline useless without Assistant features
Due to the age of Google Nest speakers and displays, they’re starting to slow down, and features are beginning not to work as expected. In some instances, the platform has felt like an afterthought. Earlier this year, a bug caused Nest devices to fail to answer basic requests, and it took weeks for users to get a fix.
On top of that, Google is actively killing key Google Assistant features. Aside from the 18 features axed last year, the company recently updated its support document with seven new deprecations. For instance, you won’t be able to change photo frame settings or ambient screen settings with your voice anymore. While you can still do this manually on your Nest display, that kind of defeats the point of having a voice-equipped smart screen.
Source: The switch from Google Assistant to Gemini might kill Nest speakers and displays
