Google Home Speaker – the first smart speaker built for Gemini
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For years, talking to a smart speaker went like this. You: “Turn off the lights and play some jazz.” The speaker: “Sorry, I don’t understand.” You: turn off the lights yourself, in silence, like an animal.
The Google Home Speaker is Google’s new $99 smart speaker, and the first one built around Gemini for Home, the AI assistant that replaces the old Google Assistant. It went on sale in the US on June 25, 2026, Google’s first new smart speaker in about five years.
And this time you can apparently talk to it like a person.
What is the Google Home Speaker?
It’s a small round speaker, 3.4 inches tall and 4.2 inches wide, wrapped in fabric. It comes in four colors: Porcelain and Hazel, plus Jade and Berry, which are US-only. A light ring glows around the base when it’s listening or thinking, and there’s a physical switch to mute the microphones.
Inside is one 58mm full-range driver that plays sound in all directions, three far-field microphones, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4. It’s also a smart home hub: Digital Trends lists Matter support and a Thread border router, so it can be the hub for newer Thread smart plugs, locks and sensors.
How does it work?
You talk, Gemini answers. The difference with the old Assistant is that you can be messy about it. Digital Trends tried things like “Set the house up for bedtime” and found it handled several requests in one sentence, plus follow-up questions. HotHardware’s Paul Lilly noticed it copes when you correct yourself halfway through a sentence.
Timers, reminders, shopping lists, music and smart home control all work for free. The fancier stuff needs Google Home Premium: Gemini Live conversations, smart camera search and daily home summaries. HotHardware lists the Standard plan at 10 bucks a month or 100 a year. Buyers who got one before the end of September received six months free.
The good and the not-so-good
The good: the assistant finally sounds like it’s listening. Digital Trends gave it an Editors’ Choice and called Gemini “the real upgrade.” Google claims 2.5 times the bass of the tiny Nest Mini, and Digital Trends could hear the difference. It also goes loud: HotHardware found it loud enough to hear upstairs in a two-floor townhouse. And at 99 bucks it’s cheap for something that also works as a smart home hub.
The not-so-good: some of the best features are behind that subscription, and every reviewer mentions it. Don’t expect hi-fi either. Digital Trends found that busy tracks get muddy at high volume, and HotHardware says the bass won’t rattle your walls. Gemini still makes mistakes: in HotHardware’s test it wrongly claimed a speaker didn’t support volume control. And there’s no screen, so no recipes or doorbell video.
Who is the Google Home Speaker for?
People who already use Google Home, Nest cameras or an Android phone, and who are tired of repeating themselves to an old Nest Mini. It’s an easy gift for parents who want to ask the weather without opening an app. Add a Philips Hue Play table lamp and “Hey Google, movie time” actually does something fun.
Skip it if your house runs on Alexa, or if you mainly want a good-sounding music speaker. A family wall calendar like the Skylight Calendar 2 is the better pick if you need a screen. And if you just want a speaker with personality, there’s always Big Mouth Billy Bass.
Where can I buy the Google Home Speaker?
It’s on Amazon for about 100 bucks at the time of writing (October 2026), sold by the Google Store. Amazon lists it as the “Google Premium Audio Speaker”, in Porcelain and Hazel. Google sells all four colors on its own store.
Finally, a speaker that understands “the thing, you know, the lights.”