Just 24 hours after Amazon’s Alexa+ announcement, Google has fired back with its biggest smart home shake-up in years, replacing Google Assistant with Gemini AI across speakers, displays and cameras.

The company unveiled a refreshed line-up of Nest hardware, including the Nest Cam Indoor (3rd gen), Nest Cam Outdoor (2nd gen) and Nest Doorbell (3rd gen).

The new cameras feature 2K HDR video, improved low-light performance and a 166-degree field of view, alongside AI-driven alerts that distinguish between people, pets and vehicles.

With Ask Home, users can search video history in plain language, for example asking “Did I leave the garage door open yesterday?”.

A new Home Brief feature condenses hours of recordings into digestible daily summaries.

Google also introduced the redesigned Google Home Speaker, featuring a light ring, stereo pairing and support for multi-speaker surround setups. Priced at US$99 (A$155), it will arrive early next year in four colours.

The bigger story, however, is software.

Google has drawn a line under its voice assistant era, announcing that Google Assistant will be fully replaced by Gemini for Home starting this month.

The move marks the company’s biggest software transition since it entered the smart speaker market nearly a decade ago.

Unlike Assistant, which relied on rigid commands, Gemini promises natural, context-aware conversations.

Users can string together requests, set up automations just by describing them, and even drop the “Hey Google” wake word when using Gemini Live, a subscription-only feature that supports free-flowing chats.

Gemini also powers smarter camera alerts. Instead of vague “motion detected” pings, users can receive detailed AI descriptions, daily Home Briefs summarising key events, and natural-language search across video history.

“Gemini for Home turns the smart home from a transactional tool into a true conversational partner,” said Anish Kattukaran, Chief Product Officer at Google Home & Nest.

Importantly, Google isn’t restricting Gemini to its latest hardware. The company confirmed that every Nest and Google Home device released over the past 10 years will be upgraded.

But not everything is free.

Google is replacing its Nest Aware subscription with Google Home Premium, priced at US$10/month (A$15) or US$20/month (A$30) for advanced features such as Gemini Live (continuous conversations without repeating “Hey Google”), AI-powered event descriptions and searchable video history. Existing Gemini Pro and Ultra subscribers will get these features included.

While Google has not confirmed Australian release dates, local pricing is expected to follow.