Google sees Apple coming and is bringing new features to your Home and Nest speakers

It's fair to say that Google's selection of Home and Nest speakers haven't seen a lot of activity, with a feeling that Google had sort-of forgotten about them. Having launched Google Home in 2016, there was a flurry of activity and the launch of a number of other speakers, and then things fell quiet.

That was until the launch of the Google Home Speaker in 2026. But it seems that the tech giant is now working on a run of updates for its older devices, including the Google Home, Home Mini, Nest Mini and Nest Audio.

Highlighted by 9to5Google, the latest version as part of the Preview Program appears to address a full range of issues, while previous updates were just listed as addressing security and bug fixes.

Does this suggest a new level of interest in its smart home devices now that Apple has announced the HomeView? It might, although I suspect that Google was planning on making these updates before Apple crashed in with its Nest Hub Max rival.

The updates listed include (and this is directly quoted):

• Audio & media streaming and volume improvements
• Setup and connectivity improvements on Wi-Fi issues
• Google assistant entry experience improvements
• Smart home control experience improvements
• Overall performance and stability improvements

That points to a number of improvements across these older devices. While the performance and stability enhancements appear to be par for the course, a new interest in assistant, streaming and smart home control are unexpected.

Exactly how these changes might impact on the older speakers is currently unknown, but it's likely that the work that went into the recent Google Home Speaker is now being reflected on a software level in these older devices.

The inclusion of "Google assistant entry experience" suggests some attention on how people get started with talking to their devices, although exactly what the changes will make remains to be seen.

Equally, the audio and media streaming improvements aren't defined, but the inclusion of volume improvements suggests that the whole experience is going to get a bit smoother.

Google's position in smart home has swung from being actively involved when it felt like a two-horse race between Google Home and Alexa, with both making the assimilation of third-party services really easy. While that still remains, Amazon stayed committed to affordable hardware, while Google eased off dramatically.

Since 2021, there has been very little activity from Google in the smart home space, but perhaps these updates mean that it is a little more focused on improving the experience on the hardware it has.