Google’s Gemini-powered Google Home Speaker is available for preorder as of June 17, 2026, priced at $99.99, with sales and shipping set to begin June 25.
The launch gives Google its first new smart speaker in six years and a dedicated showcase for Gemini for Home. Its most advanced AI features require Google Home Premium after the trial, making the device both a smart-home hub and a subscription play.
What Gemini adds to Google Home
The speaker is the first Google audio device built around Gemini for Home, Google’s more conversational smart-home assistant.
Gemini for Home is designed to understand more natural smart-home requests than Google Assistant, a shift from rigid voice commands toward more conversational control. Users can correct themselves mid-command, ask follow-up questions, and combine actions, such as adjusting lights and music in the same request.
The speaker also ties into Google’s subscription strategy. Buyers get six months of Google Home Premium and three months of YouTube Premium with activation. After the trial, Google Home Premium Standard costs $10 per month or $100 per year; the Advanced plan costs $20 per month or $200 per year.
Premium unlocks Gemini Live, AI-powered camera notifications, camera-history search, Home Brief summaries, and more advanced automation features. Without it, users keep basic Gemini for Home functions such as quick answers, media control, timers, and standard smart-home commands.
Why the speaker is a smart-home platform play
Anish Kattukaran, Google Home’s chief product officer, told The Verge that Google used the delay to cut smart-home and basic media command latency by up to 40%. He said the company also fixed more than 2,500 reported issues and shipped more than 50 features and improvements.
The challenge is making Gemini more conversational without making routine commands less predictable as voice assistants become AI platform battlegrounds.
The hardware also functions as a smart-home hub, with 360-degree audio, stereo pairing, Google TV Streamer integration, Matter device control, and Thread 1.3 border-router support. The Verge noted that the Thread version may matter to smart-home buyers because the speaker does not ship with the newer Thread 1.4 specification.
The speaker includes a physical microphone mute switch, listens for “Hey Google” or “OK Google” wake words, and uses a light ring to show when it is listening, thinking, or responding.
WIRED reported that the speaker is smaller than the Nest Audio and comes in Porcelain, Hazel, Jade, and Berry, with Jade and Berry limited to the U.S. Google Store. Two speakers can be paired for stereo sound or connected with a Google TV Streamer for a home-theater setup.
The device is most relevant to users already invested in Google Home, Nest cameras, Google TV Streamer, or Matter-compatible smart-home devices. It also shows how Google is pushing Gemini beyond search, chat, and creative AI tools into connected devices people use every day.
Read more: Google’s Gemini expansion shows how quickly AI is spreading across its product ecosystem.