Google just dropped its biggest smart home upgrade in years, launching a new lineup of Nest cameras and its first Gemini-powered speaker. The 2K HDR cameras pack advanced AI features like natural language video search and detailed activity descriptions, while the new Google Home Speaker brings Gemini's conversational AI directly into living rooms across multiple countries starting today.
Google is betting big on AI-powered home security with today's launch of three new Nest cameras and its first speaker designed specifically for Gemini. The announcement marks a significant shift toward conversational smart home experiences, with devices that can actually understand and describe what's happening in your home.
The star of the show is the upgraded camera lineup - the Nest Cam Indoor (3rd gen) at $99.99, Nest Cam Outdoor (2nd gen) at $149.99, and Nest Doorbell (3rd gen) at $179.99. All three feature 2K HDR video recording, Google's highest resolution yet, and earned top rankings from DXOMARK for image quality in their respective categories.
But the real breakthrough isn't the hardware - it's what these cameras can do with Gemini for Home. Instead of generic "motion detected" alerts, you'll get specific descriptions like "dog jumps out of playpen" with zoomed-in video previews. The cameras can now field natural language queries through Ask Home, so you can literally ask "What happened to the vase in the living room?" and get relevant video clips with explanations.
"To deliver the full potential of Gemini's intelligence, these devices needed to be true AI cameras that could interpret and understand," Sanjay Noronha, Product Manager for Google Home & Nest, explained in today's blog post. The cameras capture a 152-degree diagonal view for the Nest Cams and an even wider 166-degree view for the doorbell.
The timing couldn't be better for Google. With smart home adoption accelerating and competitors like Amazon pushing Alexa integration deeper into security systems, Google needed a standout differentiator. Gemini's multimodal AI capabilities - understanding both visual and audio inputs simultaneously - gives these cameras an edge in contextual awareness that traditional motion detection can't match.
Google isn't limiting Gemini to its own hardware. A new partnership with Walmart brings budget-friendly onn-branded cameras starting at just $22.96 for an indoor model and $49.86 for a video doorbell. These devices integrate directly with the Google Home app and access the same Gemini features through a Google Home Premium subscription.
