Stefan Schenk/Android Authority
TL;DR
- Gemini In Home is making a number of upgrades, many of which focus on its ability to understand your voice commands.
- Users who work with notes and lists will appreciate support for more complex instructions, including multi-step tasks.
- Google is also enhancing Parental Controls and Digital Wellbeing, allowing home users to easily set limits.
Taking over the Assistant space from Gemini has been a learning process for all of us, but the good news is that it keeps getting better. In the latest series of updates Google Shares are coming, we’re learning about a whole bunch of Gemini-related changes, and the big takeaway for you here should be Google’s focus on improving Gemini’s ability to understand both what you’re saying, and what you want it to do.
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Have you ever asked a Gemini something simple and it took them a long time to answer? If you’re used to asking your smart speaker what time it is, Google says these responses should now come much faster. On the other hand, Gemini should also start to recognize your speech patterns, so if you’re an exceptionally long talker, expect Gemini to get better at waiting for you to finish before interrupting.
Context has always been important to Gemini, and Home is working to better incorporate contextual cues to better understand what devices you’re trying to control, even if not explicitly named. A similar upgrade is coming to how Gemini handles notes and lists, with a better understanding of instructions for updating lists, including complex multi-step commands. And if you’ve ever noticed Gemini glitching and pretending it can’t find any of your listings, don’t worry — Google says it’s fixed that, too.
If you’re like us, you have a lot of playlists at once – and good luck remembering the names of them all. Thankfully, Geminis are getting better at recognizing them, even if you miss a few words. We should also expect fewer mistakes when asking to play specific songs – as well as getting better at actually stopping the music when you ask it to.
On the app side of Google Home, Google is making some changes to the thermostat slider, which it says professional installers should appreciate, and it’s got some improvements to the camera controls in the iOS version. However, the big deal here is that the app has the ability to set things like content filters, screen time limits, and usage rules for supervised accounts, guests, and other Home users.
All of these changes should apply to Gemini for Home users currently.
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