Gemini can trigger smart home routines based on what your cameras see.
Google is updating Gemini for Home, the version of its AI assistant for smart homes, 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 has replaced Google Assistant on Google's smart home cameras, speakers, doorbells and displays.
At I/O 2026, Google expanded its Google Home Gemini built-in program to make it easier for companies to make compatible cameras and speakers. That focus on cameras wasn't a coincidence; the biggest change the company is rolling out now is the ability to use Gemini to create automations triggered by what your cameras see. Gemini for Home can already identify events like a package being dropped or glass breaking, and now those visual insights can kick off a smart home routine.
"To set these up, you just need to use simple, natural language prompts to describe the exact event you want to start an automation, and select which cameras should look for it," Google says. "By pairing the unbound flexibility of Gemini's visual intelligence with the devices in your Google Home ecosystem, anything your camera can see can now become the trigger that choreographs your entire home."
As part of these updates, Google has also improved the AI assistant's performance and reliability. Gemini for Home should have an expanded ability to understand and execute multiple requests made at the same time, and accept more casual language when you make them. Google says Gemini will also mistakenly claim it can't perform tasks less often and have a better understanding of 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 adding Familiar Faces and submitting feedback easier.
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 that Gemini for Home has been rolled out in. The big component still missing from Google's larger smart home plans is the updated Google Home Speaker. The new smart speaker was announced in October 2025 and is supposed to ship in spring 2026, but Google has yet to make it available to order.
