We’re about to witness a critical moment for Google Home

It’s fair to say that Google Home is in an awkward place right now — and it has been for a while. Google’s smart home ecosystem was on a hot streak for a few years, but between stagnant hardware releases and mounting complaints about bugs and glitches, it’s easy to see why so many people have given up on Google Home.

That’s precisely what I did a couple of years ago, ditching all of my Google Home/Nest speakers and displays for Amazon Alexa ones. But now it’s almost October 2025, and I’m ready to go back to Google’s smart home world.

Have I lost my mind? Am I a masochist? Do I enjoy pain and suffering? I know it might seem that way, but I have my reasons. And if you also gave up on Google Home long ago, I think you might agree that this could be the year to give the platform a second (or third) chance.

My primary reasons for leaving Google Home boiled down to two things: Google Assistant and the Google Home app. If you’ve used a Google Home or Google Nest device in recent years, you’ll understand my frustration with both of them all too well.

Simply put, the Google Assistant is outright bad. It has been for a while now, and it’s only gotten worse as time has gone on. Whether it’s the Assistant’s outright inability to answer questions, slow responses to simple commands, or not hearing the “Hey Google” wake word when it should, all of these issues added up to the point where I couldn’t deal with them anymore.

That’s why Google’s upcoming switch from Google Assistant to Gemini is such a big deal.

I’ve been really happy using Gemini more on my Android phones this year, and the night-and-day difference between Gemini vs. Google Assistant on Wear OS further cemented my excitement for Gemini’s arrival on Google’s smart speakers. The real challenge for Google will be to ensure Gemini starts strong and continues that way, avoiding the degradation that has plagued Google Assistant. But if Gemini on other devices is any indication of what we’re getting, we should be in for a worthwhile upgrade.

Then there’s the Google Home app. As it currently stands, the existing Google Home app is fine. It gets the job done, but I try to avoid using it as much as possible simply because of how overcrowded and cluttered it feels. With five tabs in the navigation bar and a horribly disorganized Settings page, it’s not an app I enjoy using.

This new version of the Home app features a greatly simplified navigation bar, now comprising just three main pages: Home, Activity, and Automations. I’m also really looking forward to the “Ask Home” feature at the top of the app, which will allow you to create automations, search your smart home activity, and more by using natural language rather than knowing which specific menus to navigate through. If it works as advertised, it could be a legitimate game-changer to help people (myself included) get more out of their smart home setups.

While Gemini and the new Home app already have the potential to resolve my biggest complaints about the Google Home experience, there’s another aspect that’s drawing me back to Google’s smart home world: the company’s new speaker.

When I said above that Google’s smart home hardware has become stagnant, I wasn’t exaggerating. The last smart home device Google launched was the 2nd-generation Nest Hub, which was released in March 2021. The last smart speaker we got from Google was the Nest Audio, which has been on the market since October 2020. While the Nest Audio is still a serviceable piece of hardware in 2025, it’s more than due for a refresh.

In addition to the name, we’ve also seen some gorgeous colors for the speaker (including green and red options) and a mention of “360 audio” — a feature Apple also advertises for its HomePod mini speaker.

This new Google Home Speaker appears to be a lot smaller compared to the Nest Audio, though presumably with similar (or better) audio quality and support for all of the latest Gemini features out of the box. It sounds like the shot in the arm Google’s smart home portfolio desperately needs, and if the price is right, the 2025 Google Home Speaker will almost certainly have a place in my apartment.

I say all of this with the acknowledgement that this could be a foolish decision on my part. Google has already made two big swings at the smart home world, once with its original Google Home speakers, and again when it tried rebooting things under the Google Nest brand.

That’s not an encouraging track record, and combined with Google’s storied history of killing countless products over the years, this new Gemini era of the smart home could very well be strike three for the company. If that happens, Google may need to bow out of the smart home arena once and for all.

However, if the opposite happens and all these bets pay off for Google, it could make up for the last several years of mediocrity. It’s a gamble, but it’s a gamble I’m willing to take part in. Amazon’s smart home world annoys me for different reasons, while Apple’s HomePods aren’t a logical fit as someone who uses an Android phone.

That ultimately leaves Google as my only other serious option, and although Google Home may be hindered right now, its future looks more promising than it has in years. Personally, I can’t wait to test drive that future for myself.