Gemini vs. Assistant: Can Google’s New AI Fix Your Smart Home?

Google Assistant is something that many of us have come to rely on over the years. From setting reminders and timers to controlling media and smart home devices, the digital butler has become a valuable part of many people’s lives, including mine.

If you’ve noticed a decline in overall reliability over the past few years, you’re not alone. I started noticing this when other products, including Google Gemini (formerly Bard), started getting more attention from Google. But coincidence or not, it’s certainly appears related. However, Google seems to be trying to fix these issues as Gemini seems to be making its way into the Google Home world through these apps. recent announcements.

Unfortunately, these updates don’t seem to be aimed at getting Google Assistant back to where it was before—a reliable digital assistant that seemed to know what you needed before you asked. So what does Gemini’s foray into Google’s smart home platform mean if it doesn’t fix any problems? Let’s see if we can fix it.

What improvements does Google Gemini bring to Google Home?

Gemini is a powerful AI tool that Google is using in a variety of ways. However, most of its current use cases don’t directly correlate to how smart home users interact with their smart home via Google Assistant. But that’s starting to change with the latest announcement to Google Gemini to Google Home.

Perhaps the most significant integration, and frankly a very large use of it, is in Nest Security CamerasMy colleague Tyler Lacoma wrote about how this works and what to expect from it. A quick tidbit about this is that Gemini’s multimodal capabilities, since it can work with text, images, and video, will allow Nest cameras to better and more accurately recognize what they’re seeing. This will help generate better previews and more accurate notifications, among other things.

In terms of Gemini’s impact on the rest of Google Home and smart home devices, the initial integration is a little thin, but useful. If you’ve ever tried to create an Automation in Google Home, or Routines as Google sometimes calls them, it’s not overly difficult, but it can be tedious and sometimes unclear. This can be frustrating for novice or casual smart home users.

When it comes to building more complex automations, Google introduced a script editor and a “Help me script” built on generative AI. This feature works relatively well and the AI ​​integration helps those who are a little unsure about how to work with scripts. Unfortunately, script editing is too advanced for many and even seasoned users would appreciate a simpler option. This is where the new Gemini integration comes in.

The idea behind Gemini’s addition is that it works much the same way you would ask Google Assistant to set a reminder, add something to your grocery list, or other useful phrases. Now, you can ask for help creating an automation using your voice and regular speech.

It’s the last piece that really puts this new automation assistant feature to work. Part of what makes Gemini easier to use is that it allows for normal, common speech. So instead of having to type in the exact words you need and the order they need to be in, you should be able to just talk to a person like you would and it should be understood. Below is an example of Google and how Gemini can help.

What should be solved with Google Gemini?

I was once an avid Google Home and Google Assistant user. As Android phone user, I have way too much information in Google’s services, which should make using Google Assistant in my smart home the obvious choice. For a long time, it was. Over the past few years, however, that experience has deteriorated to the point where I rarely use Google Assistant for smart home needs or anything else.

If I simply asked my Google Assistant to turn on some lights or adjust my thermostat, I would get a response that it “doesn’t know how to do that yet.” This problem caused me to move most of my smart home devices to Amazon Alexa and Home Assistant. Now, much to my family’s dismay, I still have Google Assistant smart speakers and smart displays throughout my house, but other than playing music and showing photos, those devices mostly just sit there.

When I told Google during a briefing about the new features and Google TV Streamer that Google Assistant fails more often than it succeeds at basic smart home control, and if there were any fixes for that anytime soon, I was told, “Gemini integration will improve the quality and consistency of Assistant features. Quality is the team’s top priority.” While I’m sure Google wants to improve the overall quality of Google Assistant, it’s unclear how and when that will happen.

I also asked how Google Gemini and Google Assistant will work together in the future: “In the context of the home, our fundamental user needs haven’t changed with the development of LLMs like Gemini. Our users want to be safe and secure, comfortable and entertained. These priorities and user needs have remained the same even after the development of Gemini. Now we’re at an AI tipping point where Gemini is poised to help serve and enhance those user needs we’ve always had.

So I guess we’ll have to wait and see

It’s clear that Google has plans to integrate Gemini into as many of its services as possible, and that could be a good thing. It’s encouraging to see how the AI ​​tool is already improving parts of Google Home and Nest. However, with the basic functionality of using Google Assistant to control your smart home a shambles and Gemini still not being able to control those devices directly, the map is about as clear as the maps used to explore the world in 1492, at least for users in the wild.

Google hasn’t directly revealed its plans for Gemini and Google Assistant, or whether the two will remain separate or eventually merge. For me, as a Google Assistant and Home user, this leaves a bad taste in my mouth, as I and many others don’t have a reliable voice assistant to control smart home devices. But isn’t that the point of the smart speakers and displays that Google is delivering?