7 features I’m excited to try when Gemini lands on my Google Home speakers

Although this will still be an early access, I can’t wait to get my proverbial hands on it because I’m sick of Google Assistant’s glitches. The inconsistency, frequent bugs, and silly downgrades have taken the joy out of using a “smart” speaker, to a point where I find myself arguing with it more often than using it. Gemini, however, has been a lot more interesting to use on my Pixel phones and watches, and I can’t help but think that this will be a huge upgrade for everyone. Here’s why.

When it launched more than a decade ago, Google Assistant’s natural language processing seemed way ahead of the curve. Unfortunately, it has only degraded since them. Sometimes it understands when I ask “will it rain tomorrow?” but doesn’t get “at what time will it rain tomorrow?” Sometimes, “raise the speed on the bedroom fan” works, but “set the bedroom fan speed to four” tells me the fan doesn’t support speed settings. Frustrating.

Google Assistant’s cursory knowledge of my Google account data always irked me. Ask it about a product I bought for which I have an email receipt, a trip I’m planning that sits in my calendar and/or Gmail, a Google Keep note, and it stutters or fails to get the exact info I want. That’s not the case with Gemini. Once linked with my Workspace account, it can access all of my Gmail, Keep, Calendar, Drive files, and Docs (though not Sheets, sadly). Something as simple as “Do I have bell pepper on my shopping list?” works in Gemini, but not in Assistant.

This is a huge upgrade for me and my husband. Being able to ask questions based on the digital traces I’ve accumulated (purchases, tickets, planned events, and so on) means I no longer have to wonder where that info is or pick up my phone mid-discussion to double-check something. Alas, Gemini is still restricted to the main calendar from one account, which makes it absolutely useless for any shared family, school, or work calendars. “You have nothing on your calendar today” is the bane of my existence, and I can’t believe Google hasn’t fixed it yet. I hope people revolt when they get migrated to Gemini on their smart speakers and lose access to all their calendars.

If you speak more than one language, I bet you’ve tried to add multiple languages to Google Assistant and found that it worsened your experience tenfold. Instead of understanding both my English and French, Assistant thinks I’m speaking French when I’m speaking English, and vice versa. Commands take longer to process and answer, too, because it’s wasting time trying to figure out what I’m saying.

Gemini, on the other hand, has a mind-blowing multi-language support. Seriously. You have to try it to believe it, and I did — and still do, every day. I can switch between English, French, Arabic, Spanish, and German, with my excellent or barebones accents, sometimes even in the middle of a sentence, and it’ll still understand and answer me. “What’s ciboulette in English?” is a question Assistant would never get, but Gemini tells me it’s chives. “Who was el jugador who missed la dernière opportunité de but during the World Cup final in 2022?” gets Assistant screaming for dear life, but Gemini says it’s Kolo Muani.

I switch languages mid-sentence all the time with my husband and the fact that I have to think and speak in English only with Assistant means it’s an unnatural form of conversation for me that demands constant effort. I honestly can’t wait until I can skip the formalities and speak normally with my Google Nest and Home speakers.

Once again, Assistant added a continued conversation mode where it waits a few seconds after each answer to see if you have more questions, but that feature was such a pain to use that I turned it off. It kept thinking I was talking to it when I wasn’t, and even when it did detect that I was asking more questions, it was very slow at responding. With Gemini, there’s a clear distinction between single commands and the Live mode, so each time I know I have a longer chat, I say, “Hey Google, let’s talk,” to open up the full convo mode in Live.

I’d like to see the same thing come to my speaker. Simply ask a question when I want a single interaction or go “Let’s talk” when I want a longer Live chat. Better yet, I expect this to bring all of Live’s benefits — let me instantly interrupt and correct when it doesn’t understand me or suggests something I’m not interested in, ask for summaries, go back and forth between multiple topics, etc. Live was more powerful than Assistant when it launched a year ago, and has only gotten better since.

I have been using Gemini’s Saved Info section to tailor the AI’s answers to my specific needs. For example, I don’t like green beans or okra, but I’m fine with plenty of other veggies, so I’ve told it not to suggest recipes with those. If you have specific food preferences or allergies, or a particular diet you’re following, you can save that info once and it’ll always take it into consideration.

I’ve used Saved Info to explain my preferences for activities and traveling, and given it specific instructions when it suggests restaurants or places to visit (Google Maps rating above four, not too far from the nearest public transit, etc.). It’s awesome to know I can commit a preference into Gemini once and never repeat it again on any other device. Having that carry over to my smart speaker would be a huge bonus.

A few months ago, I deep-dived into Gemini Gems and created several ones that are tailored specifically for me. One of them, the Bartender gem, is a fantastic cocktail suggestion machine that looks at all the liqueurs and spirits saved in my bar spreadsheet and gives me ideas based on what’s in my cabinet. But in order to talk to my Bartender, I have to open the Gemini app or website, look for the gem, load it, and then start chatting.

With Gemini on my Google Nest or Hub, I hope I’ll be able to summon gems with a voice command. “Talk to my Bartender,” and boom, I’m in a chat with this specific gem. Of course, everyone can have different gems that they tailor to their needs. Your different insurance plans, your home owners association rules, your new car’s manual — everything can be a gem you talk to, and bringing that to speakers means they could be accessible anywhere anytime.

I have a Nest Hub 2nd gen in my kitchen but it works as a glorified timer 90% of the time. It does some unit conversions, too, but the few times I tried to use it for recipes, it annoyed me to no end. Following step by step instructions for ingredients or cooking is infuriatingly slow and inefficient, and it doesn’t leave any room for improvisation or extra questions. Gemini Live, on the other hand, is flexible and full of ideas.

I can give it two or three ingredients and ask it for ideas, I can correct or change midway, ask it to repeat, ask for substitutes if I don’t have a specific ingredient, change cooking methods if I don’t want to turn on my oven, add random spices midway, skip steps or go back, and more. It is incredibly versatile and, honestly, the best sous-chef I’ve ever had. But once again, for now, it’s limited to my phone. I really look forward to having this level of kitchen help on my Nest Hub, so I can stop fiddling with my phone while cooking.

But what about you? Is there any specific Gemini feature you’re looking forward to when the new AI lands on Google Home and Nest speakers? Or is there anything you’re dreading about this change? Maybe, like me, you can’t get over the lack of multiple calendar support?