Gemini can trigger smart home routines based on what your cameras see.
Google is updating Gemini for Home, the version of its smart home AI assistant, with new camera-based automations, reliability improvements and an updated version of the Google Home app. Gemini for Home launched in Early Access in October 2025 and replaced Google Assistant on Google’s smart home cameras, speakers, doorbells and displays.
At I/O 2026, Google expanded its integrated Google Home Gemini program to make it easier for companies to make compatible cameras and speakers. This focus on cameras was no coincidence; The biggest change the company is currently rolling out is the ability to use Gemini to create automations triggered by what your cameras see. Gemini for Home can already identify events like a dropped package or broken glass, and now this visual information can kickstart a smart home routine.
“To set them up, you simply use simple, natural language prompts to describe the exact event you want to start an automation for and select which cameras should search for it,” Google explains. “By combining the limitless flexibility of Gemini’s visual intelligence with the devices in your Google Home ecosystem, everything your camera can see can now become the trigger that choreographs your entire home.”
As part of these updates, Google has also improved the performance and reliability of the AI assistant. Gemini for Home should have a broad ability to understand and carry out multiple requests made at the same time, and accept more informal language when making them. Google says Gemini will also falsely claim that it can’t perform tasks less often and that it will better understand the alarms and timers you have enabled. Finally, Apple Music subscribers can once again use the streaming service on Google Home devices, and the Google Home app has been updated to make it easier to add familiar faces and submit comments.
Google says these new features are available to all existing users (unless they have an Enterprise or Family Link child account) in the 19 countries and languages in which Gemini for Home has been rolled out. The big component still missing from Google’s biggest smart home plans is the updated Google Home speaker. The new smart speaker was announced in October 2025 and is expected to ship in spring 2026, but Google doesn’t have it available for order yet.
