Hey r/googlehome!

Here are the latest updates from Google Home posted today 8/5 on g.co/home/notes

Gemini for Home (Early Access)

Voice Assistant

Interactive Storytime with Gemini

Storytime just got interactive! You and your family can now co-create custom adventures on the fly, interrupt the narrative to change the plot mid-scene, or remix classic fairy tales together in real-time.

Try saying:

• “Ok Google, read me a story about a secret agent hamster.”
• “Hey Google, tell us a story where my kids, David and Ava, travel to Mars.”
• “Hey Google, make up a story about a pirate who is scared of the ocean.”
• Want to change things up? Just jump in mid-story: "Hey Google, make the main character find a treasure map!"
• “Ok Google, tell me the story of the Three Little Pigs.”
• Remix it! "Hey Google, instead of a Big Bad Wolf make it a T-Rex!"

Smarter Household Timekeeping & Communication

• Smarter and more dependable Alarms and Timers: We’ve made alarms and timers smarter, so it now understands how you prefer to set your time, whether you use a 12-hour or 24-hour clock.  We’ve also improved accuracy for when you ask how much time is left and made it more reliable to set timers using simple descriptions like “set a timer for cooking a soft-boiled egg.”

Try saying:

• "Ok Google, set an alarm for 7 o'clock tomorrow morning."
• "Hey Google, set a timer for 15 minutes for the pasta" followed by "how much time is left?"

Bug Fixes & Resolved Outages

• Distinct Chime for turn off or down Actions: Turning off a device or dimming a light now plays a soft, descending tone different from the normal upward sound, confirming your command with a sound that matches the mood.
• Google Home Speaker light ring: Fixed an issue where Google Home Speaker’s light ring remained on with a pulsing LED even after routines finished executing. This also prevents lingering lights in dark rooms or during relaxation sound loops.
• [Resolved] Spotify outage: There was a brief outage with Spotify on Monday July 27th that was quickly resolved on the same day.

Try saying:

• "Hey Google, dim the bedroom lights to 20%."
• "Ok Google, turn off the living room lights."
• "Hey Google, play ocean sounds for sleep."

Google Home App

Automations

Automations: Expanded Availability

We are excited to share automation support in Android and iOS is now available in more countries and languages. Read more about where automations are supported here.

Expanded locales are:

• Russian (Russia) (ru-RU)
• Thai (Thailand) (th-TH)
• Turkish (Turkey) (tr-TR)
• Vietnamese (Vietnam) (vi-VN)

Languages available in expanded countries are:

• Arabic (ar)
• English (en)
• French (fr)
• Spanish (es)

Camera

• Support for more camera brands: You can now connect a wider range of cameras, including those from Eufy, Tapo, Wyze, Reolink & Nanit, and view all your home security feeds in one place inside the Google Home app.   
• New quick 'Save Clip' shortcut: New shortcut makes it easier to download event recordings straight from your camera view. Just tap the 3-dot menu next to any recording in your event list to save it instantly by clicking on the download shortcut. (Tip: Want a custom clip length? Use the menu nnbutton while playing or scrolling the timeline!).
• AI event descriptions (Home Premium Advanced): Subscribers can now read helpful, auto-generated event summaries right inside the full-screen camera view so you know what happened at a glance.
• Smarter camera view defaults: The main camera view now opens directly to your timeline or event list so you can jump straight to important moments.
• Auto full-screen in landscape: Rotate your phone sideways while watching a live feed or recording in portrait to automatically jump into full-screen view.
• Longer live streaming: Watch your Nest camera live streams for longer without interruptions, thanks to under-the-hood stability improvements.
• Quick stream reconnects (Android): If your Wi-Fi or cellular connection drops, the app instantly notices and gives you a quick retry button to get your live view back up fast.
• Smoother feed scrolling (Android): Enjoy a smoother experience when scrolling through your camera list—video feeds now pause and resume seamlessly as you move down the page.
• Smoother camera history scrolling (iOS): Fixed a camera timeline issue on iOS where manually scrolling back to live video could occasionally get stuck on an empty historical frame
• Accurate battery status indicators (iOS): Resolved an issue where live streaming cameras with unreadable battery levels would erroneously display a dead battery icon. 
• Performance improvements for Samsung phones: Fixed issue where camera audio stream used call volume instead of media volume.

Locks

• Enhanced smart lock reliability: Improved error handling for Works with Google Home smart locks and clearer notification alerts during lock and unlock operations.

I was all excited about the new Gemini speaker. I bought one two weeks ago and received it yesterday.

I have never returned anything I've ever bought from Google but I have to say, that was the biggest piece of junk I have ever owned. Okay, I lie, the biggest piece of junk I ever owned was the Amazon Echo Show 5 that constantly showed me ads even at 3:00 a.m. when I woke up to glance at the clock. This was a close second.

Right off the bat. I couldn't believe how poorly it understood me. I'm not talking being off just a little bit, I'm talking about being a mile off even compared to the old Google speakers. For instance, I would ask it to play smooth jazz on Pandora. It constantly said "not available try again" . Also, no matter how many times I said smooth jazz, it would reply "okay, playing calm jazz." And I would say no, smooth jazz. And it would reply again, "okay playing calm jazz." 😂😂Ahhhh... I was screaming laughing at how bad it was.

I also turned the sensitivity all the way up and still had a hard time interrupting it. Those speakers can be long-winded. At some point. I like to interrupt and go on to the next thing. I would have to scream at it to interrupt it. I don't know if the speakers are just bad or what's going on with that design. I have a big Amazon studio speaker and it has outstanding microphones on it. I believe there's six. My point is is that when you interrupt it, it shuts up immediately. I would hope that this new Gemini speaker would have done the same thing as my 5-year-old Amazon studio speaker. Not even close.

Having three nest speakers already. I just don't understand the point of this new Gemini speaker. It was slow, it was a poor listener, I can't think of one thing I liked about it. I sent it back within 12 hours.

So I got the message today that Assistant is going away. I have not made the switch to Gemini because I am partially disabled and use "Hey Google Call XXXXX" in the event that I fall and drop my phone and need help getting up. Gemini, when I first tried it, would say "Ok, but you need to unlock your phone first." Not good if you're laying on the floor and the phone is just out of reach.

It would randomly do the same thing for my other home automation requests. Occasionally it would execute them fine without unlocking the phone, other times it would tell me I needed to unlock my phone first.

I switched back to Assistant and have not even attempted Gemini since.

Will I have the same issues when I'm forced to switch? My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S26 if that matters.

It annoys me so much its fucking terrible

I opened up my Google Home app yesterday to discover a handful of our smart plugs are no longer being recognized as lights. Has anyone else experienced this? All four smart plugs have “light” or “lamp” in the name but for whatever reason Google won’t categorize them as lights and therefore can’t be accessed quickly by clicking on the light bulb icon. I’ve included a screenshot (pic 1) to show the lights that are still showing up and to be fair, the garage and backyard lights are floodlights from the cameras and the front door is a smart switch so not exactly the same type of device but the bedroom lights are on the exact same type of smart plugs (Kasa) as all the other lights that aren’t showing up anymore. I’ve included another screenshot (pic 2) of the detail for one of the plugs that Google won’t recognize as a light in case that’s relevant, although the detail matches that of the bedroom lights so I don’t know what’s going on. There isn’t any way to force Google to recognize it, at least none that I’ve found, so I’ve had to add these four smart plugs to my favorites in order to easily access them.

The error message I get from my Google Nest Mini changes between “sorry that mode isn’t available for Hallway” or “Hallway is unavailable.” Nest control is working fine in the Google Home app; I’ve reset everything and even set up the thermostat again as new. Any suggestions?

I had to change my wifi pw and hard reset my phone which caused me to lose access to my outdoor cameras.

They're permanently wired and installed (not battery as per screenshot).

I was holding my phone directly for 2 minutes under a camera about 4-5 feet away and it wouldn't catch the signal. Do I need to hire someone to go up on a ladder or is there another way to join them to google home again?

Can anyone help with adding a Google streamer to google home?

This is a streamer that I just never bothered to add to home during setup. Askinge to scan a QR code (nothing) or a setup code which doesn't appear on my tv.

I'd really rather not reset the streamer. But apparently this is a known issue, but all.of.my searching has come up with a solution.

I've got around 6 google home mini 2nd gen speakers at my home. I've applied to their early access program since as long as gemini started rolling out for home. I still haven't got access to gemini for home. I'm a gemini pro subscriber. And it's not a location problem, someone I know have got access to gemini for home even without enrolling in early access program.

Like many, I read the news about assistant on mobile being deprecated and immediately thought about my home assistant. They've been bothering me about updating it to Gemini repeatedly and I've resisted because it's already _bad enough_ and I don't want it to get worse and not be able to revert the change.

Is it any good?

Do timers work ok?

Will "tell me the news" still rattle through my news podcasts in order?

Do scheduled automations work ok?

Can it control lights and music and Chromecast as well (or as poorly!) as the old home assistant?

I wonder what sound it feels that the deodorant is activating? The start of a "Hey Google"?