Rather than retrofit Google Assistant with AI, Google is killing Google Assistant.
In October 2025, Google began rolling out Gemini for Home to its smart speakers, Nest displays, and Nest cameras. The old Google Assistant is being phased out by end of 2026.
The new system uses Google's Gemini AI model, the same one Apple just licensed for $1 billion a year. On a Nest speaker, that means you can ask questions in normal language ("play that song from the summer blockbuster about race cars"), give multi-step commands, and have Gemini make sense of vague requests. Connected Nest cameras can now describe what they see in plain English: "Sergei walking a dog." More importantly, with connected cameras, it could soon send you alerts: The dog is out of the fence.
