What’s New in Google Home: Gemini and App Updates (May 27, 2026)

On Wednesday, May 27, 2026 (local time), Google released the latest official update, “What’s new in Google Home,” detailing the new features and improvements rolled out for Google Home and its related services.

This edition of “What’s new in Google Home” covers updates for “Gemini for Home (Early Access)” as well as new features and improvements for the Google Home app on Android, Wear OS, and iOS. Once again, this update is quite extensive.

Release notes for 2026

May 27, 2026

Gemini for Home (Early Access)

Enjoy a more capable, responsive, and natural way to manage your home.

Voice Assistant

Additional improvements to Smart Home control

• Expanded ability to perform multiple actions in a single command: Building on recent updates, you can now combine an even broader selection of actions into a single breath. Tell Gemini to lower the blinds, dim the lights, set a 20 minute timer, and start your favorite podcast, all with a single command.
• Casual language for more effortless controls: Get a more consistent and predictable response when you turn lights off with phrases like “set brightness to 0”, or adjust settings by a little bit, such as making the living room “a little warmer.”
• Ongoing speed upgrades for everyday commands: As part of our continuous investment in speed and latency reduction, the daily commands that you use in your home will become faster and more fluid.

Try saying:

• “Set a 20 minute timer for the chicken, start the vacuum cleaner, and play some relaxing music”
• “Make the living room a little warmer”
• “Dim the bedroom lights and set the house to eco mode”
• “Make the humidifier blue” (color control on non-lights smart home devices)
• “Stop holding at 70 degrees”

Enhancements to your Media & Video Experience

• Silence a response from Gemini without stopping your music: If music was playing in the background when you asked Gemini a question, you can silence Gemini’s response by saying “stop” without also stopping the music that was playing.
• Apple Music playback restored: We worked with Apple to resolve an issue so you can listen to Apple Music on your speakers again.
• Bluetooth Pairing: We’ve improved the reliability of using your speakers and displays as Bluetooth speakers. Say “pair Bluetooth” to allow your speakers or displays to be used for media playback through a Bluetooth connected device, such as your phone.

Try saying:

• “Be quiet”
• “Turn the volume up in the kitchen”

Continued Investments in Platform Reliability and Speed

As part of our deep, ongoing investments in speed and latency, we continue to optimize the platform experience while in early access.

• Improved response reliability: We’ve made a number of model updates to make your experience faster and more reliable. And, we’ve reduced instances where Gemini mistakenly claims it cannot perform a supported task, such as playing music or controlling lights.
• Additional optimizations for alarms and timers: Building on recent latency improvements, we’ve further optimized stop and snooze commands for speed, making daily time-tracking and wake-up alerts even more responsive. Gemini is also better at keeping track of active running timers during conversations and understanding which timer or alarm you’re referring to when requesting to change or cancel it.
• More complete answers: Gemini provides more complete responses to questions about general knowledge, weather, and sports, so you get all the key information up front.

Try saying:

• “Can dogs eat watermelon?”, “What is the air quality right now?”, or “How is the Dow Jones doing?”
• “Stop the alarm” (you should notice a speed improvement for these basic commands).
• “How much time is left on my timer?”
• A few minutes later, say “how about now?” and it knows you are referring to the timer
• “Pause all my bread timers” (Gemini pauses any on-going timer you’ve set related to your bread baking)

Expanded Availability of Early Access in Supported Countries

All existing users* in the 19 countries and languages that we have rolled out to can now opt-in to early access. *Enterprise (Google Workspace) and Family Link child accounts are not yet supported so if your Google Home has one of these accounts you will not be able to opt-in to early access yet.

Camera AI

Unlocking the Next Generation of Home Automation

Last October, Gemini for Home redefined what your cameras could understand. Now, we’re launching a powerful upgrade since that initial debut by enabling all of your other smart home devices to use Gemini’s advanced scene understanding from your cameras in smart home automations. We’re moving past rigid, hardware-bound “if this, then that” limitations. With this update, your Nest cameras (and select ‘Gemini Built-in’ cameras like the new onn Outdoor Camera Plug-In) can act as intelligent, natural-language catalysts for your entire Google Home setup—allowing you to build complex automations around real-life events by simply describing them.

We are introducing a brand-new starter that lets you design automations based on visual insights. Because your cameras can now actually understand what they see, your smart home can automatically react to almost anything happening around your home. To set these up, you just need to use simple, natural language prompts to describe the exact event you want to start an automation, and select which cameras should look for it. By pairing the unbound flexibility of Gemini’s visual intelligence with the devices in your Google Home ecosystem, anything your camera can see can now become the trigger that choreographs your entire home.

Try creating automations for specific events, for example:

• Amazon delivery
• Kids walk up to door
• Car door left open
• Red BMW enters driveway
• Raccoon near trash bin
• Person takes out the trash
• Luke gets out of car (Familiar Faces needs to be enabled)

Tips for creating automations with camera events:

• Describe clearly visible items: Only use descriptions of things the camera can clearly see.
• Use general terms for people: For the best results, use “person”, “people” or “someone” in your triggers when referring to people. Alternatively if you want to be more specific, enable Familiar Faces and use specific names.

Want to see these triggers in action? Read our latest [blog post] for real-world examples, instructions on how to get started, and important details regarding regional availability, account compatibility, and Early Access disclaimers. Because these features are still learning, your input is crucial—please don’t forget to share your feedback with us!

Google Home app

These features and improvements are available in Google Home App version 4.17, and are beginning to roll out today.

Camera Improvements

• Visual Refinements to Familiar Faces: We’ve cleaned up the Familiar Faces interface to make managing recognized faces a smoother, more streamlined experience with clearer name suggestions and perfectly aligned text and buttons.
• Feedback Improvements: You can share feedback about your video clips with Google to help us improve your experience and troubleshoot issues. You can also choose to share your video clips to Google, which helps with product improvement and AI model training. Learn more here.

Google Home Apps & Widgets

• Responsive Smart Home Widgets: We’ve improved the responsiveness of the Google Home widget on your phone’s home screen. This ensures your smart plugs, lights, and switches react instantly to your first tap.
• Easy Watch Favorites Management: We’ve resolved an issue on Wear OS where watch names and reordering options were missing when editing favorites from your wrist. This makes it easy to organize your favorite devices directly from your Pixel Watch.

What’s new in Google Home – Google Nest Help

“Gemini for Home (Early Access)”

“Gemini for Home (Early Access)” has introduced expansions and improvements for both its voice assistant and Camera AI features.

Voice Assistant

Updates for the voice assistant in “Gemini for Home (Early Access)” include expanded control capabilities, improved processing speeds, enhanced media playback and video features, and improvements to overall platform reliability.

Expanded Voice Assistant Controls and Speed Improvements

In “Gemini for Home (Early Access),” the range of actions that can be executed with a single voice command has been significantly expanded.

For instance, you can now issue multiple instructions in one go, such as “lower the blinds, dim the lights, and set a timer and a podcast.” Support for natural, everyday language has also been bolstered, allowing the system to accurately respond to vague requests like “set brightness to 0” or “make the living room a little warmer.”

Processing speeds for daily voice commands have also been improved, allowing for faster responses to instructions like “dim the bedroom lights and set the house to eco mode” or “make the humidifier blue.”

Enhanced Media Playback and Video Features

When playing music on a smart speaker, you can now say “stop” to end both the music playback and silence Gemini’s response simultaneously.

Additionally, Apple Music playback functionality has been restored. Furthermore, when using Google smart speakers or smart displays as Bluetooth speakers, you can now simply say, “OK Google, pair Bluetooth,” to enter pairing mode and connect as a Bluetooth speaker in one seamless process.

Platform Reliability and Speed Enhancements

As part of ongoing efforts to improve speed and reduce latency in “Gemini for Home (Early Access),” several model updates have been implemented.

These updates have reduced instances where Gemini incorrectly claims it cannot perform supported tasks, such as playing music or controlling smart lights. Regarding alarms and timers, improvements include optimized data transfer, faster stop and snooze commands, and increased responsiveness for daily time management and wake-up alerts.

Gemini is now better at recognizing requests to change or cancel active timers or alarms during conversations. Furthermore, it now provides more detailed responses to questions about general knowledge, weather, and sports.

Expanded Availability for “Gemini for Home (Early Access)”

The availability of “Gemini for Home (Early Access)” has been expanded. Users with personal Google accounts in the 19 currently supported countries and languages can now opt-in to the early access program without needing to join a waitlist.

Please note that Google Workspace, Family Link, and accounts for minors remain unsupported.

Camera AI

While October 2025 marked a significant shift in what Nest cameras could understand via “Gemini for Home (Early Access),” this powerful new upgrade now allows all other smart home devices to utilize Gemini’s advanced scene understanding from Nest cameras in their own smart home automations.

This enables users to build complex automations simply by describing real-world events. Specifically, you can set triggers for “Amazon delivery,” “car door left open,” or “BMW enters driveway” using simple prompts, and then select which Nest cameras should monitor for those events.

Google Home App

The Android and iOS version of the Google Home app (v4.17) brings improvements to Nest camera face recognition, widget responsiveness, and more.

Nest Camera Improvements

Face recognition on Nest cameras has been improved, allowing for smoother and more efficient management of recognized faces.

Name suggestions are now clearer, and the layout of text and buttons has been optimized. Additionally, users can now share video clips captured by Nest cameras as feedback with Google to help improve the product and train AI models.

Widget and Wear OS Google Home App

The responsiveness of the Google Home widget on Android and iOS has been improved, allowing for near-instant reactions to tap inputs.

Furthermore, the v4.17 update resolves an issue in the Wear OS version of the Google Home app where reordering options were sometimes missing.

“Google Home” App Links

Source: Google