Google wants Gemini in every home, so it's giving away the blueprints

Google delivered a major Home revamp last year with along several Gemini-powered features, including Home Brief and Ask Home. While the features have been slowly reaching more users worldwide. And to make these features available to even more users, Google is offering a new program for other brands to make more Gemini-ready products for your home.

Google is making Gemini for Home available as a full-stack AI platform, allowing developers and hardware makers to create Gemini-compatible devices. On the software side, the stack will allow developers to make their devices ready for the following features:

• Camera Intelligence, which lets Gemini scrub through actual security camera footage and direct you to the exact moments,
• Ask Home, which lets you interact with different hardware in your smart home using natural language, and
• Home Brief, which gives users a daily summary of key events using data from sensors and cameras at home.

To make this feasible, Google will offer hardware blueprints, saving manufacturers R&D costs. These blueprints include reference designs suggesting the most fitting set of components, such as microprocessors, camera modules, mics, etc., to build products with Gemini for Home built-in.

The first two product categories Google plans to make are smart cameras and smart speakers. With these reference designs, partners will be able to simplify manufacturing for Hi-Fi speakers and high-quality security cameras. Google doesn’t say whether it plans to limit the program to reputable manufacturers or also open it to DIYers and tinkerers. It has, however, opened up a form where you can register your interest in making compatible hardware.

In addition, the tech giant will partner with ISPs and carriers to not only bundle Google Home subscriptions as perks for consumers but also share technology to empower their own solutions. For instance, it is already working with AT&T to enable Gemini-powered insights in its Connected Life app.

This isn’t the first time Google has partnered with other manufacturers for smart home devices. In the past, it has partnered with leading audio brands, including Bose, Sony, and JBL, for smart speakers and tech brands, such as Lenovo, for smart displays with Google Assistant natively built into them. Some of these newer devices are already getting Gemini support. Despite that, Google hasn’t truly succeeded at making them incredibly popular, and it’s to be seen whether that can change now.

In addition to making its services available to more users, Google may also benefit from the opportunity of selling more AI subscriptions, since Gemini for Home cannot function without them.