Google accidentally revealed its upcoming smart home lineup during the recent Made by Google ’25 event. The brief 10-second clip showed a new cylindrical smart speaker that appears to be powered by Gemini, Google’s AI assistant that’s been replacing Google Assistant throughout the year.
The unannounced speaker resembles a chubbier version of Apple’s HomePod Mini with a distinctive light ring at the base. Reports suggest it will feature a fabric finish and come in four colors – bright red, Jade (light green), Obsidian (black), and Porcelain (white).
Beyond the speaker, Google is reportedly preparing to launch several new Nest devices, including a third-generation Nest Cam Indoor, a refreshed wired Nest Cam Outdoor, and a third-generation wired Nest Doorbell. All three cameras will upgrade from 1080p to 2K HDR resolution, addressing a long-standing criticism of the current models which haven’t been updated since 2021.
The new Nest Cam Indoor will be available in Snow, Berry, and Hazel colors, while the Outdoor model will come in Snow and Hazel. The Nest Doorbell will offer Snow, Hazel, and Linen color options. All three devices will include a zoom-and-crop feature allowing up to 6x digital zoom.
The Gemini-powered speaker looks to offer several key features that set it apart from previous Google speakers. It will include “Sound Sensing” technology that can detect unusual sounds like breaking glass or smoke alarms when you’re away from home and send alerts to your phone. The speaker will deliver 360-degree sound and can pair with a Google TV Streamer for spatial surround-sound, similar to what Apple offers with its HomePod and TV products.
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All the new Nest cameras will include a local storage fallback option, storing up to an hour of video locally if your Wi-Fi connection drops. They’ll also provide three hours of event video previews with 10-second clips of each recorded event. A new “Daily Summaries” feature, powered by Gemini, will offer a recap of recorded events from your cameras and doorbell.
Google is also reportedly renaming its subscription service from “Nest Aware” to “Google Home Premium,” with an additional higher tier called “Google Home Premium Advanced.” Pricing details for these subscription plans have not yet been revealed.
The new speaker will support Matter, the smart home standard that aims to improve compatibility between different smart home brands. This suggests it will serve as both a Matter controller and Thread border router for connecting various smart home devices.
While Google hasn’t officially announced release dates for any of these products, the inclusion of the speaker in their event footage suggests a launch may be coming soon. Industry experts predict either an October release to capitalize on holiday shopping or a spring launch alongside the expected Pixel 10a.
For consumers with existing Nest Audio or Nest Mini speakers, questions remain about when and how Gemini might replace Google Assistant on these older devices. Google has reportedly been testing Gemini experiences on existing speakers, but no official timeline for this transition has been announced.
The leaked devices represent Google’s response to increasing competition in the smart home market, particularly from Amazon’s Echo and Ring products, as well as from companies like Eufy and Swann that offer 4K cameras with full local storage options.
