Nest speakers start showing some new color — is Gemini to thank?

Nest speakers are in the middle of a big change right now, and its name is Gemini. Back at the start of the month, Google didn’t just introduce the upcoming Google Home Speaker, but confirmed that early access previews of Gemini on existing Nest speaker hardware would commence later in October. As we start getting into the back half of the month, users are beginning to share the colorful new look they’ve spotted for their hardware.

Whether they has Google Home or Nest branding, the company’s smart speakers have long taken advantage of lights to communicate with us, from the big circle on the original Home, to the more reserved series of four lights we find on devices like the Nest Mini, Nest Audio, and Nest Max. If it’s been a while since you set any of those up, you may have forgotten that those aren’t just white lights — Google support docs show how when in setup mode or experiencing an error they’ll appear as different colors — try turning off your microphone, and you’ll see them turn orange.

Now, all of a sudden, users are noticing a multi-colored overhaul to how their speakers respond to voice commands. Over on X, Max Jambor shares a recording of his Nest Audio lighting up with a rainbow of colors — kinda reminiscent of the Gemini overlay on our phones, right?

We’re also starting to see similar reports appear on Reddit, like in a post by user DzurisHome on the Google Home sub showing a Nest Mini acting the same, now with colorful feedback.

While we haven’t heard anything explicitly confirming this change as part of the speakers embracing Gemini, it’s hard to think of this as possibly being related to anything else. DzurisHome confirms in a reply that they’re part of the Home early access program, but we’d expect more users getting Gemini on their speakers to report stuff like its new behavior and additional voice options — and not just some freshly colored lights.

So far, though, we’ve yet to confirm much of that. We have spotted one Reddit report, though, this time from user Serrano1305, who mentions one speaker in their stereo pair getting a Gemini voice (and breaking the stereo pair in the process).

That said, this could still be coming together in pieces — it is just an early preview, after all — so this could only be the first wave of the overhaul to come. We’ve also yet to spot this change on any of our own Nest speakers, although we wouldn’t be surprised if that changes over the course of the next couple days.