Google finally breaks silence on new Nest Hubs, and it’s more of a slow burn than a comeback

It’s been four years since Google launched a new Nest Hub. The most recent one — Nest Hub (2nd Gen) — came out in 2021, and since then, we haven’t seen a true-blue smart display from Google. This is also partially because in 2023, Google launched the Pixel Tablet, which doubles up as a smart home display when docked. However, even when Google introduced its tablet refresh, the company never explicitly said that it’s killing off the Nest hub line. Now, it looks like we may finally have some clarity on the future of Nest Hubs and how Google is thinking about them.

“We’re definitely committed to smart displays,” Kattukaran said. Although he didn’t reveal any information about upcoming devices, he made it clear that Google is very much invested in the category, and didn’t deny that a new Nest Hub is in the works.

I think the reason I’m excited about this category is that you think about how all these LLM technologies are sort of converging, it does present itself as an incredible form factor to interact with something like Gemini for Home. If you think about the properties of a smart display: a microphone, which means audio in, a speaker, so audio out. It’s got a screen, which complements a voice modality, you can interact with it and visualize information. As I see where Gemini for Home is going and Gemini more broadly, all of the things Google is investing in building, for me it feels like almost the ultimate form factor to be able to deliver a really great home experience. So, that’s why we are going to continue to invest in that category, so I think it’s going to be awesome.

Kattukaran’s comments come just days after Amazon revealed two new Echo Show smart displays featuring its Alexa Plus AI Assistant. Google, on the other hand, released a new smart speaker last week, but there were no signs of a product featuring a screen.

While Kattukaran promised Google will “have news to share there soon,” it’s unclear if we’ll see more Google Home/Nest launches this year. If Google has anything in the works, it will probably hold off until Gemini is fully integrated into existing Google Home devices.