is a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. He’s been a tech journalist for 20 years.
Google Home chief Anish Kattukaran announced several updates to the smart home platform that fix a long list of annoyances and idiosyncrasies. There’s also one noteworthy new addition: the introduction of “Live Search” for your cameras.
So, instead of Gemini only knowing about things that have already happened, it now understands what it sees in your live camera feeds. That means you can ask things like, “Hey Google, is there a car in the driveway?” Live Search requires a subscription to the Advanced plan of Google Home Premium, which costs $20/month or $200/year.
Gemini for Home is now also using updated models, a change that should improve the quality and accuracy of answers to general questions and help with playback of newly released songs.
Gemini now understands context better, too, which should improve how it targets smart devices. For example, saying “turn off the kitchen” will now target just the lights in the room, instead of every smart device. And commands like “turn off all the lights” will apply to your current location, and not target the lights in a secondary location — like a cabin or parent’s home — that you also manage.
Check the release notes for the full list of changes.
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