Google’s Gemini-powered smart home revamp is here with a new app and cameras

The new Home app has a simpler three-tab layout.

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Google

Conversational interaction is also a big part of this update. In the home app, subscribers will see a new Ask Home bar where you can input natural language queries. For example, you could ask if a certain person has left or returned home, or whether or not your package showed up. At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen—generative AI can get things wrong.

The new app comes with new subscriptions based around AI, but the tiers don’t cost any more than the old Nest plans, and they include all the same video features. The base $10 subscription, now known as Standard, includes 30 days of video event history, along with Gemini automation features and the “intelligent alerts” Home has used for a while that can alert you to packages, familiar faces, and so on. The $20 subscription is becoming Home Advanced, which adds the conversational Ask Home feature in the app, AI notifications, AI event descriptions, and a new “Home Brief.” It also still offers 60 days of 24/7 video history.

Gemini is supposed to help you keep tabs on what’s happening at home.

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Google

Free users still get saved event video history, and it’s been boosted from three hours to six. If you are not subscribing to Gemini Home or using the $10 plan, the Ask Home bar that is persistent across the app will become a quick search, which surfaces devices and settings.

If you’re already subscribing to Google’s AI services, this change could actually save you some cash. Anyone with Google AI Pro (a $20 sub) will get Home Standard for free. If you’re paying for the lavish $250 per month AI Ultra plan, you get Home Advanced at no additional cost.