Over the past few weeks, Google has been rolling out various improvements to how the Home app works with Nest Cam products, and the company is now detailing everything new.
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Google is apparently planning a shakeup for its smart home hardware efforts centered around – you guess it – Gemini, with a new “Google Home Premium” subscription reportedly taking the place of Nest Aware.
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Google’s Nest hardware suite hasn’t seen a refresh in four years now, but the company is now gearing up for a new launch this year which includes better video quality, support for digital zoom, and some striking hardware updates.
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At Made by Google 2025, Google detailed “Gemini for Home” and briefly showed what appears to be a new first-party smart speaker.
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Through recent updates, the Google Home app is now fixing the final deficiency of older Nest thermostats with the arrival of scheduling support.
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Google Home is testing a new automation editor that adds “flexibility and convenience to control your smart home with a refreshed look.”
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This round, Google Home has released two release notes — version 3.37 and 3.38 — simultaneously with a focus on camera updates. This follows the last drop in late July.
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ADT’s Nest-integrated security system is one of my favorite parts of my smart home, in part because it has a lot of futuristic ideas. Recently, ADT added a new smart lock option to its lineup, and the fingerprint-enabled lock is such a welcome upgrade.
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For the past several weeks, the Google Home app’s Routines creator and editor had an edge-to-edge bug on Android 16, and a fix is now here.
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Back in June, Google introduced three new voices for the upcoming Gemini-Assistant revamp for the Nest Mini and Audio. Ahead of launch, Google has renamed most of them, but they otherwise appear to be the same.
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As previewed last November, Google Home for Android is giving the media controller a Material 3 redesign.
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Google is addressing a longtime sore point of its Nest cameras with recent updates to the Google Home app which, apparently, will reduce how often users run into “no video available” errors.
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In April, Google began offering changelogs for the Home app on Android and iOS. Release notes for Google Home 3.34, 3.35, and 3.36 are now available.
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If you’re having trouble controlling lights via Google Home and voice commands, you’re not alone, as Google has acknowledged some issues regarding this functionality and is working to roll out a fix.
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Google Assistant has, especially in the context of the smart home, been crumbling over the past couple of years. In a post this evening, Google’s lead for Home and Nest has acknowledged Assistant issues while also teasing “major improvements” coming later this year.
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As much as I have always loved having a robot vacuum around that connects to my Google Home ecosystem, I’ve still always felt like they fall short in small ways. The X8 Pro Omni from Ecovacs finally feels like an option that doesn’t, and that’s all you need.
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As previewed last month with other Android updates, Google Home for Wear OS is letting you set a custom list of device Favorites.
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The Gemini app is getting the ability to Broadcast messages to your Nest speakers and smart displays using the Google Home integration. This is rolling out now.
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As part of bringing Gemini (models) to Assistant on the Nest Mini and Audio, Google is adding more natural voices. Following the initial seven options added in December, Google recently introduced three more voices.
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The Nest x Yale Lock was a pillar of Google’s smart home for years, and perhaps for much longer than it really should have been. Now, a successor of sorts has finally arrived in the new Yale Smart Lock with Matter, which is also the first “Google Home Preferred” product.
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Pixel owners on Android 16 are having edge-to-edge issues with the Routines creator and editor in the Google Home app.
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The latest release notes — version 3.33 — for the Google Home app on Android and iOS are now available.
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In addition to all the Android announcements, Google Home previewed a number of upcoming updates and features today.
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Alongside the Android 16 launch and June 2025 Pixel Drop, Google is highlighting the latest (app) features for all Android devices.
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