It's finally time to say goodbye to Google Assistant in the smart home world as Gemini for Home has begun its slow rollout on Google smart speakers and displays. But if you're one of the lucky few allowed to take Gemini for Home for a test drive today, you should expect some bumps in the road, the company says.
Google dropped Gemini for Home earlier this month and has been announcing a “new experience” for Home since last year.
But Gemini is just now starting to replace Google Assistant on smart devices, and only for a select few in its early access program. The company stated that Gemini for Home will be available to more users in waves over the next weeks and months. (Personally, I don't have access to Gemini for Home on my smart speakers yet.)
The main reason for the slow rollout is to give Gemini for Home time to smooth out its rough edges, and Google is already managing expectations about the capabilities of the new assistant, although he describes in detail everything he can do.
For example, Gemini for Home's memory of past conversations may be poor, Google says. While Gemini will be able to monitor conversations “back and forth” based on the “context of your chat,” that context “is not infinite” and “will be reset” if you leave a topic and return to it later, according to the company.
On the other hand, if you change the topic mid-conversation, Gemini's memory of what was previously said in the chat “may persist and influence responses,” Google says.
Another challenge is that Gemini for Home's natural language capabilities are not yet fully integrated with smart home activities. In particular, Geminis may have trouble following related commands such as “create a calendar event, turn on the kitchen light, and play relaxing music,” Google warns. The same goes for local searches, which remain “one-off commands” and “cannot be used in a natural two-way conversation.”
However, some commands will work with “certain” smart devices, Google added. This means you can say, “Turn on the TV, dim the lights, and set the temperature to 72 degrees.”
It's also worth noting that because Gemini for Home is a “different product” than Google Assistant, it “doesn't have access to what you told” the old voice assistant, including “basic information to personalize your experience.” The company promises that it is “working to add additional personalization capabilities to Gemini for Home.”
Finally, there are hallucinations: Google admits that the response to a query—especially the “latest, real-time information”—might be “out of date or incorrect.” The company says it is “currently working on this” and that “it's safest to check the actual answers before relying on them.”
We have already heard about cases where Gemini hallucinates in the context of a smart home– particularly when Gemini is said to be dishing out a roundup of what's going on in your smart home in its daily “Home Brief”.
This story is part TechHive's in-depth review of the best smart speakers.
