Google's long-awaited new smart speaker is finally here. The Google Home Speaker is being marketed as a new era for the tech giant's roster of AI-powered products.
Highlights include a new app, improved hardware and the inclusion of the Gemini smart assistant to take on the brainpower of Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri.
We first covered the Home at the back-end of 2025, but Google has only just revealed the date when buyers will be able to get their hands on it.
The smart speaker will officially launch on June 25th, while you can pre-order now for £100 / $100 if you've got an itchy trigger finger and want to guarantee a new Home for your home.
Am I set to become one of those keen beans desperate to test out what the Home can do? Pre-ordering might be a step too far, and the need to pay £8 / $10 per month for a Google Home Premium subscription sours the deal somewhat, but I'll readily admit that I'm fascinated by Google's re-entry into one of audio's most fast-moving markets.
The current problem for Google is that it has been badly left behind by the current market. While Amazon and Apple surged ahead by offering a host of products – be they in-house or made by licensed third parties – Google fell badly behind.
Our list of the best Google Assistant speakers has become increasingly thin as time has gone on. The JBL Authentics 300 and Authentics 500 are the most recent speakers to house Google Assistant in one form or another, and they came out almost two years ago.
Alexa, on the other hand, has gone from strength to strength, not only through licensed Apple products such as the Echo Dot (5th Gen) and the Echo Dot Max, but through third-party speakers integrating one of the best smart assistants into their respective feature sets.
Just look at the Sonos Era 300, the Sonos Play, the upcoming Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker or the new Denon Home multi-room range as proof of just how keen major brands are to have Alexa on board.
Google has recognised the need for a big swing to get itself back in the game, and while there's no guarantee of a home run, the integration of fully-fledged Gemini powers does point to a serious shift for the brand.
Whatever your views on AI, Gemini is a seriously powerful tool to pack into a smart speaker, and one that could genuinely tempt users away from the safety of Apple or Amazon.
The flipside of that, of course, is that Google might have focused more on headline-grabbing AI integration than it has on audio quality.
A smart speaker is still a speaker, after all, so that promise of 360-degree audio and a "uniform sound that you can hear from every direction" needs to be delivered upon.
Amazon recently dropped the ball with its mediocre-sounding Echo Dot Max, but Apple's HomePod 2 and HomePod Mini remain five-star sonic powerhouses. Plus, new models will surely arrive at some point, something which Google should have factored into their calculations when producing the new Home Speaker.
I'm fascinated to see whether Google can still compete in the smart speaker arena. This is a corner of the market which has become something of a duopoly between Amazon and Apple, but the revamped Home Speaker, complete with Gemini powers, could turn that two-horse race into a triple-threat standoff.
That monthly subscription price will be off-putting to some, while Google hasn't yet forged a reputation for itself as a purveyor of the finest audio quality around, but who knows? Maybe the Home Speaker is about to change all that.
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