I've never been more worried about the future of Google Home

The last few months have been pretty notable for Google Home. Late last year, Gemini rolled out to older Google Home speakers, breathing new life into them. Considering the disastrous state the Google Assistant had turned into, this was a huge step forward.

But software is only half of the equation. Hardware is equally important, and that’s why the Google Home Speaker is such a big deal. After months of teasing, the Home Speaker finally launched on June 25, making it the first Google smart speaker to hit store shelves in six years.

Just the existence of the Home Speaker is a net positive, as it shows Google hasn’t completely given up on its smart home hardware ambitions. However, the implications it’s already had on Google’s exisitng smart speakers — and what it represents for Google Home going forward — is extremely troubling.

I want to believe in this next chapter of Google Home, but right now, it’s not looking good.

The Home Speaker strategy doesn’t make any sense

I recently wrapped up my Google Home Speaker review, and as I mentioned in it, the Home Speaker itself is a pretty solid gadget. It’s compact, sounds decent, the colors are gorgeous, and Gemini works very well. If the Home Speaker was slotting itself into the rest of the Google Home lineup as another option for folks to choose from, I’d be a pretty happy camper.

Unfortunately, that’s not what Google did. Just days before the Google Home Speaker was released, Google discontinued the Nest Audio and Nest Mini — the only other two smart speakers in the company’s portfolio.

Although the Nest Audio and Nest Mini duo wasn’t perfect — especially compared to the myriad of options in Amazon’s Echo range — it worked. If you wanted a cheap entry point into the Google Home ecosystem, the Nest Mini was essentially perfect. It could fit anywhere, sounded good enough, and the $49 retail price (which was often discounted) made it so you could stick a couple of Nest Minis in your home without breaking the bank.

If you wanted something more premium, the Nest Audio was a worthy upgrade. Was it the best-sounding smart speaker ever? No. But its two-driver design with a dedicated tweeter and woofer made it a significant improvement over the Nest Mini. And for just $99, it was a good value, too.

But now that the Nest Mini and Nest Audio are gone, the Google Home Speaker is trying to fill both their places — and it’s a worse version of each.

As a Nest Mini replacement, the Home Speaker sounds considerably better and is still relatively compact. However, at $99, it completely loses the biggest draw of the Nest Mini: its low price. If you’re building out your smart home — especially if you’re working on a tight budget — there’s a big difference between buying a handful of smart speakers at $49 each versus $99.

What’s even more frustrating is that the Home Speaker doesn’t justify its higher price. It shares the same $99 MSRP that the Nest Audio launched with, but where the Nest Audio had a dual-driver design (specifically, a 75mm woofer and a 19mm tweeter), the Home Speaker has just a single 58mm driver. In other words, the $99 Google speaker launching in 2026 sounds notably worse than the $99 Google speaker that launched in 2020.

After six years, this is Google’s grand plan — to eliminate its limited (but effective) two-speaker strategy and replace it with a single jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none option. It’s an objectively bad plan, but that’s where we’re at.

What this represents for future Google Home products

All of this puts the Google Home portfolio in an awkward place today, but it also makes me nervous about the implications for future Google Home products.

A couple of months ago, evidence of a “Google Home Display” appeared online, suggesting that Google is working on a new smart display to go along with the Home Speaker. As someone with an aging first-gen Nest Hub, I’m all for a modern Google smart display. But given what the Home Speaker did to Google’s speaker lineup, I’m worried Google is planning a similar strategy with the Home Display.

As it stands today, Google’s smart display portfolio includes the Nest Hub, Nest Hub Max, and Pixel Tablet. However, the trio is barely hanging on by a thread. Three of the four available colors for the Nest Hub are sold out on the Google Store, the Nest Hub Max is also only available in a single color, and the Pixel Tablet is completely out of stock.

Whenever the Google Home Display rolls around, what do you think is more likely? A) Google replenishing its Nest Hub, Nest Hub Max, and Pixel Tablet stock so we have multiple smart displays to choose from? Or B) Google discontinuing its three current smart display options and going all in on the Home Display as its one and only model? I think the answer is pretty obvious.

I’m not necessarily advocating for Google to prop up its smart home ecosystem on hardware that’s over half a decade old, but ripping away choices and forcing a single model strategy on people isn’t a good call, either. Yet, it’s hard to see anything else happening at this point.

Google has a plan, but I don’t believe in it

My entire house is centered around Google Home. I have a Nest Hub in my office, a Home Speaker in my bedroom, a Pixel Tablet in my kitchen, a Google TV streaming box in my living room, and a Nest Cam watching my driveway. I want the Google Home ecosystem to be as strong and healthy as can be, because the better Google Home gets, the better my smart home gets.

I’m the last person rooting for Google Home to fail, but I don’t see the vision in what Google is doing right now. Taking six years to release an OK smart speaker that’s a worse value than the previous models isn’t a path to success. Likely adopting that same strategy for smart displays won’t help either.

Google clearly has a plan in place with the Home Speaker and forthcoming Home Display, and after a multi-year drought of no smart home hardware, I suppose I should be thankful for anything at this point. But try as I might, I just can’t make myself feel that way.

Let me be clear — I want Google Home to succeed, but if this is the future we’re looking at, I don’t see that happening.