I stayed loyal to Google Home for years, and now I regret it

I consider myself a patient person. I’ll wait for outcomes to unfold when I know I’m doing my best to achieve something, or when I sense life will throw something my way when the stars perfectly align. But in both those scenarios — and everything in between — nowhere does my patience extend to Google and its smart home efforts. Not anymore, at least, after having waited for years, not months.

I got hopeful not too long ago when I saw leaked images of the now-official Google Home Speaker, but its announcement has turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments in recent tech history. It may sound like a tall assertion, but the smart home category isn’t like buying a single gadget. It’s an ecosystem you consciously build — multiple pieces working together in a giant connected web. You can’t just toss out one piece and expect everything else to function the same way without friction or a learning curve, if at all.

That kind of investment demands brand trust, awareness, loyalty, and commitment, much like a long-term relationship. And I think when it comes to my relationship with Google Home, it’s time for me to move on.

Gemini for Home was supposed to be the lifeline for Google’s line of smart speakers — a lineup that’s been on life support for far too long. Once the industry benchmark, Google Assistant for smart homes slipped to a point where it got beyond frustrating to use, pushing people to the Alexa camp.

I decided to stay put, defying that peer pressure for as long as I could. Google itself recently admitted that Assistant had failed users in several ways and that it had to divert resources toward building Gemini from the ground up instead of doing patchwork on Assistant.

That sounded like the right move; the kind of reassurance that might’ve kept me around longer. But there’s one big problem: Gemini isn’t coming to Google Home speakers where I live.

I live in India, a country where Google stopped selling its smart speakers and displays a long time ago, leaving the field wide open for Amazon to dominate. And Amazon has done a much better job keeping its hardware up to date here and elsewhere. Yet, India isn’t on Google’s list of countries where Gemini for Home will roll out — not this year, and not even by the spring of 2026, when Google plans to expand availability.

That uncertainty has tested my patience and shown me a mirror, blowing raspberries at me for waiting so earnestly for something that’s a year away at best. Ring a bell? Apple’s promises about Siri at last year’s WWDC had the same effect.

What’s ironic is that I have had a taste of Gemini for Home on my old Google Home Mini. In the weeks leading up to its early-October announcement, I often heard my speaker respond in Gemini’s characteristic Indian-accented voice. I really thought Google was about to flick the switch that week, but we now know how that went.

Now that I know I’ll be stuck with the downward-spiraling Google Assistant for months, I’m angry enough to jump ship, even if it means spending hours reconnecting all my smart home gadgets to Alexa from scratch.

I had been planning to buy new smart speakers to upgrade my setup and move the older ones to other rooms, like the kitchen or guest room. But that only made sense if Google had actually launched its new speaker. Instead, it has merely unveiled it, and it won’t be available until next year, as Google focuses on bringing Gemini to existing hardware first. That applies to all markets, even the US.

Google seems to be keeping the new speaker’s specifics under wraps until closer to launch, but from what little we’ve seen, it looks pretty basic. And with no clarity on what’s coming months from now, I’ll naturally turn to what’s available today with full knowledge of what I’m getting.

Not to mention, there’s still no new smart display from Google. The last one came out half a decade ago. Sure, something new might be in the works, but if its timeline mirrors the Home Speaker’s, I doubt we’ll see it before the end of next year. That’s an entire product cycle in the tech world.

I resisted switching to Alexa because Google Assistant used to be far superior to what the Echo speakers offered. But I’ve grown to admire Amazon for not being complacent, for continuing to innovate across its lineup, even at the low end.

Take the Echo Dot, last updated in 2022. You can often find it for dirt cheap, yet it packs solid hardware: a temperature sensor, spatial awareness, and even doubles up as a node for Amazon’s Eero mesh system. What a useful little tool it is! And just last month, Amazon expanded its already extensive Echo lineup with new speakers and smart displays.

For a basic voice bot, Alexa just works. It feels like a smart home champ. Sure, it fumbles with advanced queries that Google Assistant handles better, but when the fundamentals are so solid, I can live without those bonus tricks.

Google Home Premium plans

Perhaps the most tempting part of the new Gemini experience across speakers, cameras, and displays was the advanced Gemini features, like talking endlessly with Gemini Live from anywhere in the house or asking it to look up specific details in your camera feed. That sounded phenomenal.

But there’s a catch: you have to pay a $10 subscription fee to access it. Either that, or you upgrade to the $20 AI Pro plan. I’m not a fan of this approach where Google keeps nudging you up the subscription ladder just to unlock more AI features.

Amazon’s Alexa+ has a similar paid tier for its LLM-powered voice bot, but I’m not too thrilled about that either.

Alexa+ is the conversational, LLM-laden version of Alexa that better understands natural language. It’s also $20 a month; it’s steep on its own, but at least it’s bundled with Amazon Prime. Early access users generally seem happy with it, though one Redditor did point out a failed smart home operation. Honestly, I’ve seen Gemini stumble the same way on my phone when controlling smart home devices, so it’s just two peas in a pod.

Even though I’m irritated enough to switch to Alexa (not the Plus version — it’s not available outside the US anyway), I still have more confidence in Gemini overall. Alexa+ is brand new and still proving itself, while Gemini has been around for over a year and is doing remarkably well across devices. Gemini Live conversations, especially those with live camera view, are a game-changer.

Still, Google’s smart home strategy feels so complacent right now that even though I suspect Gemini will prove to be a better overall bot, I just can’t justify waiting anymore. Especially when Google continues to ignore markets like India.

I may be holding the short end of the stick, but users in the US don’t have it this bad. Gemini for Home is rolling out there, Alexa+ is available with compatible hardware, and all you have to tolerate is the lack of new Google smart speakers or displays for a few more months.

Your existing Nest speakers will soon get a Gemini upgrade, while I’ll be here, feeling jealous, pulling my hair out as I plan this move, commit to it, and eventually link all my smart home devices to Alexa from scratch.

And since my words are clearly falling on Google’s deaf ears, I might as well make the switch sooner rather than later.