Google Home chief Aneesh Kattukaran announced a number of updates to the smart home platform that fix a long list of annoyances and quirks. There’s also a notable new addition: the introduction of “Live Search” for your cameras.
So, instead of Gemini only knowing about things that have already happened, it now understands what it sees in your live camera feed. This means you can ask things like, “Hey Google, are there any cars on the road?” Live Search requires a subscription to Google Home Premium’s advanced plan, which costs $20/month or $200/year.
Gemini for Home is also now using the updated model, a change that will improve the quality and accuracy of answers to common questions and support playback of newly released songs.
Gemini now also understands context better, which should improve the way it targets smart devices. For example, saying “Turn off the kitchen” will now target just the room’s lights instead of every smart device. And commands like “Turn off all lights” will apply to your current location, and won’t target lights in a secondary location — like a cabin or a parent’s house — that you also manage.
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