Summary
- Gemini is taking over Google Assistant on mobile & smart home devices, transitioning Nest speakers to display new colors on their indicator LEDs.
- Users in select countries testing Gemini on Nest devices are seeing different LED colors when the speaker is listening for commands using the hotword.
- The transition to Gemini may pose issues, but can be fixed with a quick reboot, hinting at future updates.
Gemini is Google’s all-pervasive AI implementation that has taken over Assistant duties on mobile, is on the verge of eclipsing the company’s famed search engine, and is also rolling out on smart home devices now. Google’s range of Nest speakers and hubs are unassuming little gadgets capable of blending in with full-fledged smart home setups. Now, users participating in a small test program say their smart speakers are lighting up differently as Gemini capabilities roll out.
Most Nest smart speakers lacking a display have five LEDs on the front, which serve as telltale lights when booting, flashing updates, or responding to users. They often glow steady and white, but a recent flurry of posts on social media like Reddit reveals some Nest users are seeing their speakers light up in other hues across the color spectrum, matching Google’s theme colors for the Gemini AI with a gradient from blue to deep purple (via Android Authority).
The new colors on Nest speakers mark a transition from Google Assistant to Gemini on these devices for voice command handling. The company started testing this back in December last year, and more people are getting to test the capabilities gradually. However, it hasn’t issued official statements about the expanded scope of testing.
The update to Gemini may cause issues for some
But are remedied by a quick reboot
From user reports on the internet, the switch to Gemini on Nest seems limited to users in the US, UK, India, and some countries in the EU. Moreover, the change is only affecting Nest Audio and some 2nd-gen Nest Mini devices only if the user accounts in question are enrolled in the Google Home Public Preview release channel and have opted in for the experimental AI features.
Although the opt-in reduced the test pool significantly, stable releases available to all users often follow the public preview testing. As such, Gemini rolling out to Nest in this phase is a good sign the company may push more updates soon. However, at least one user testing it in this batch reported their Nest Audio becoming unresponsive to voice commands even though casting audio to them worked fine. Usually a reboot or reset through the companion app fixes such issues.
