Smart homes have gotten more intelligent over the past few years, but we’re still not at the level of old science-fiction movies where people could talk directly to the home’s AI. Fortunately, if Google plays its cards right, this technology could arrive sooner than you think. The company is working on letting Gemini interact with your smart home devices and change their settings based on your natural language prompts.
Google Gemini’s Home integration is currently in the testing phase
At first glance, this might look like the commands you’d give a regular Google Home device. However, since Gemini runs on LLM, it can understand natural language prompts. This means it can take context from what you’re saying and figure out the best course of action.
For example, in Google’s guide to controlling your smart home with Gemini, the company says you can say “The sun is too bright in the living room” and Gemini will know to close the window coverings. Or you can say “Set the dining room for a romantic date night” and Gemini will do its best to set the scene.
There are a few caveats with this new feature. At the moment, Gemini can only process English signals, and it’s not allowed to affect any smart security devices. If that sounds fine to you, check out how to join the Google Home Preview Program if you want to try out the feature early.