In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, Google’s big Gemini for Home voice assistant update doesn’t just work on Nest devices, but several third-party Google Assistant speakers too!
Gemini for Home is Google’s long-awaited upgrade to the crumbling Assistant experience on smart speakers and smart displays. It’s an opt-in experience only and rolling out in waves, but what immediately stood out as impressive was that Google was updating not just some recent hardware, but every Assistant speaker it had ever sold. From 2016’s original Google Home all the way up to the Nest Audio, everything was eligible.
What Google didn’t really speak to, though, was support for third-party hardware.
Google Assistant speakers initially launched from a plethora of brands such as Anker’s Zolo, Polk Audio, Belkin, and even Best Buy’s Insignia brand as pictured above, and that’s just barely scratching the surface. But these fell out of favor over the years, with efforts becoming pretty focused on Google’s own Nest speakers. Nowadays, JBL is one of the only recognizable brands putting out new Google Assistant speakers. Outside of smart displays, all of that hardware still works just fine.
Now, it’s getting a pretty big update from the looks of it.
Some users have reported that older third-party Assistant speakers have been updated to Gemini for Home. Google previously commented that it was “working” with brands to make this happen, but it wasn’t expected ot happen quite this quickly, or on some of the devices that have appeared. The most notable example is a Redditor who received the Gemini update on the aforementioned Insignia speaker from Best Buy. We know that this is Gemini for Home and not just Assistant with Gemini voices as the speaker responds to “who are you” with a response about “Gemini for Home” specifically. Some users also claim that the Lenovo Smart Clock series has also been updated alongside Nest devices, though the proof isn’t quite as firm.
It’s hard to know how many of these third-party Google Assistant speakers will be compatible with Gemini if only because not as many people are still using these. If you’ve received Gemini for Home and are now seeing it supported on third-party speakers, let us know which models in the comments below!
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