Google hints at a new Nest Hub

Google says it’s committed to the astute show category, meaning we whitethorn spot caller versions of its Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max “soon.”

Last week, Google announced a caller astute speaker for its AI-infused Gemini astute location platform, but determination was nary motion of a caller astute display. The bully quality for fans of Google’s Nest Hubs is that Google Home’s Anish Kattukaran tells The Verge the institution is “definitely committed to astute displays,” and that they’ll “have quality to stock determination soon.” 

In an interrogation connected The Vergecast this week, Kattukaran explained that astute displays are precise overmuch portion of Google’s plans. “[The astute display] does contiguous itself arsenic an unthinkable signifier origin to interact with thing similar Gemini for Home. If you deliberation astir the properties of a astute show — a microphone, which means audio in, a speaker, truthful audio out. It’s got a screen, which complements a dependable modality, you tin interact with it and visualize information.” 

There are besides cameras successful astute displays, helium continued, which adds the imaginativeness portion to the multi-modality of Gemini. “As I spot wherever Gemini for Home is going and Gemini much broadly … it feels similar astir the eventual signifier origin to beryllium capable to present a truly large location experience. So, that’s wherefore we are going to proceed to put successful that category, truthful I deliberation it’s going to beryllium awesome.”

Amazon intelligibly agrees, having conscionable launched two caller Echo Show astute displays built for its caller Alexa Plus AI assistant. These are much almighty than its erstwhile astute displays, packing a caller AZ3 Pro processor, caller edge-based computing capabilities, and a caller Omnisense fusion level that tin process information locally from astute location sensors. All of which is poised to provender Alexa Plus much context. 

A caller Nest Hub astute show or, much likely, Google Home Hub (Google seems to be retiring the Nest name outside of cameras and thermostats) would request to beryllium a significant measurement up from its existing astute displays.

Last refreshed successful 2021, the Nest Hub, with its Soli radar sensor, and its bigger sibling, the Nest Hub Max, which features a camera, are compatible with Google’s caller Gemini for Home platform. But moving connected older hardware, neither instrumentality feels similar a flagship AI instrumentality for the location successful 2025.

The Pixel Tablet, which launched successful 2023, felt similar an aboriginal stab astatine thing much almighty for moving the astute home, but it was missing excessively galore halfway features and has since been discontinued. 

As a concept, the astute show has struggled to find a compelling usage case – beyond a integer photograph frame. However, arsenic a multi-modal input strategy for a smarter dependable adjunct successful your home, they could yet travel into their own.