Google Home users can ask Gemini to control their smart homes now – how it works

Google Home users are getting a free smart home upgrade, as Gemini will now be able to control their devices. The Gemini mobile app’s new integrations, rolling out to the public, let you ask Google’s most capable AI assistant to control your smart home devices as intuitively as you would ask the AI to generate text.

Gemini, Google’s latest AI assistant, is a generative AI tool that can generate text and discuss topics with you conversationally, making the interaction almost as natural as speaking to another person. 

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The new Google Home integration enables users to open the Gemini app and ask the AI bot to turn lights on or off or control other smart devices. Giving the Gemini App this functionality brings Google that much closer to making Gemini the default AI assistant across all Google apps. 

It also makes controlling your smart home easier than ever, being one of the few available smart home assistants with the power of generative AI. Here’s how that would look like compared to what you’d experience now:

Imagine sitting in your living room on a cloudy day, trying to read a book on your favorite chair, when you realize it’s suddenly too dark. 

If you have Amazon Alexa, you may ask:

1. “Alexa, set living room lights to 50%.”
2. “Alexa, open the curtains.”
3. “Alexa, set the reading lamp to 100%.”

If you use the Gemini app with the Google Home integration, you could use a single prompt:

1. “Open the curtains and set the living room lights to 50%, but make the reading lamp 100%.”

You can use more nuanced prompts, like “Get the house ready for bedtime but set the temperature a little warmer,” to have Gemini tell your smart thermostat to set the temperature a degree or two warmer than the previous night. 

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With the new integration, Google Home users will be able to control the following devices from the Gemini mobile app: lights, outlets, plugs, thermostats, fans, blinds, curtains, TVs, speakers, washers, coffee makers, vacuums — and more, as long as they’ve been added in the Google Home app. 

This update has been in public preview for the past couple of months and is rolling out to all Google Home users over the coming weeks.