Pixelated - Do smart speakers still make sense in 2025?

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Welcome to episode 70 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Damien, and Will talk through their feeling surrounding the upcoming smart speaker Google appears to be readying for launch next month. From whether a Gemini-powered smart speaker fits with what people ask for in their homes to debating if a display is absolutely necessary to make the device worth it, all three hosts work through their feelings on the looming reboot of a once-booming market, and where Google might intend to take the lineup moving forward. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Apple Podcasts Overcast Timecodes 00:00 - How do we feel about smart speakers in the Gemini era? 10:29 - Do people want to replace their aging Nest Minis? 14:48 - Smart speakers vs. smart displays. 24:35: - Should Google even sell smart speakers anymore? 34:47 - Final thoughts Hosts Abner Li Damien Wilde Will Sattelberg Read more ‘Google Home Speaker’ branding leaks with ‘360 audio’ touted Google teases new Nest Cam and Gemini updates for Home coming on October 1 Google announces ‘Gemini for Home’ and briefly shows new smart speaker Listen to more 9to5 Podcasts The Sideload 9to5Mac Happy Hour Electrek Space Explored Feedback? Drop us a line at [e-mail], leave a comment on the post, or reach out to our producer.

So, gents, I wanted to give, well, I kind of wanted to have a little bit of discussion today. We've had some sort of like leaks and rumors about what's happening with Nest. We're potentially going to get a new Nest speaker. I'm in a weird situation where I don't really know what I want from a Nest system because I'm a Nest Mini. Is it Nest Mini or Home Mini? Whatever they want to call it. And then Pixel Tablet. I've had Nest Hub's, Next Hub's, second gen.

I'm nested out. But I really, really wonder what's going to be. going to happen. Google's going to integrate Gemini. What do you guys think in terms of like form factor, functionality, all that kind of stuff. Just please, just go off on me on how you think Nest is going to develop the next couple of years. Yeah. So I think what we know is that they're working on the Nest speaker. We don't know what they're calling it, a new Gemini speaker of some sort. And the hardware itself is, looks nice enough. Kind of looks like a second gen nest, well, first gen nest Wi-Fi to me.

just shrunken down but the hardware has to look nice in your home you that's a given but I

at the same time I am wondering what the role of the role of smart speakers are going forward yeah I don't know I to me it's so complicated

right because I feel like when we got the first round of like smart speaker banana right like I don't know what to call it but like you know the mid 2010s like 2016 to 2020 I feel like the market is like flooded with with you know Google home and and and and all of the various um Amazon products and so on and so forth um stuff from Apple that you know obviously and and and

and I don't know like I feel like I have a lot more speakers than I did 10 years ago a lot they're like my sound bar can can can support cast and all that stuff right like every audio source in my house now is essentially wireless, which was not true. 10 years ago, 10 years ago, I was still relying pretty heavily on a Chromecast audio that I have somewhere in a box in my basement. I'm not, I totally don't know where, but somewhere, it's down there and it's worth something. So I don't know if I'm like fully, if I would be fully interested and even like a Gemini powered smart speaker because I feel like I'm covered both on the Gemini side and on the smart speaker side, but stuff I already own. So I just,

the question is that these dedicated smart home devices versus your phone, what is the versus your phone or your smart watch or your headphones? Right. Is there still a place for smart speaker for the dedicated smart devices that are stationary? Is there a place for that? I think there is for some people, right? It just, but I don't know if it's going to be quite as like successful on the second go around as the first, right? Especially with that older hardware not, you know, getting Gemini, right? it's not going to like your nest your your your Google well but I don't think like the Google like a 10 year old Google Home Mini is ever going to get upgraded to to Gemini maybe it does but I I'd be surprised I'd be pleasantly surprised but I'd be surprised um I I think

Google obviously sees it as like we want Gemini everywhere we talked a little bit about that um like recently that that that is like that company strategy is just let's get Gemini on anything that we can and we've seen that with the upcoming rollout of TV support and Android auto support. I think that's like an important strategy for them. At the same time though, well, I don't know. Actually, I'm kind of talking myself into it because because we've seen this rush to have like these AI first or AI specific gadgets and like smart speakers kind of seem like the

smartest place to to start because it's a form factor people are already familiar with and they understand what it can do for them, but with a pretty massive upgrade from the LLM side. Do you think that the form factor kind of hinders it a little bit? I know you kind of have answered the question a little bit

because my first thought process is, as you kind of alluded to there, Abner, is with Gemini being almost, it almost feels phone focused right now. Yeah, they're trying to put it on watches. But I do wonder if the speaker format is the perfect home for that conversational thing, almost like, I mean, I guess the kind of

it like, and this is a little bit abstract. I'm sorry for being really abstract about this, but it's almost like a little microphone in your home, which is a negative and a positive, right? You're going to go to that device, you're going to talk to it. It's almost passive, whereas a phone feels a little bit more. You have to do it. If that makes sense, you have to activate Gemini. You have to go out of your way to do it. If you may be texting somebody, you can kind of, like, I want to see how, if Google does integrate this more readily into, say, existing products, I'm interested to see how that happens, because like you said, Will, we all tend to have a ton of smart home hardware.

Like the current paradigm is almost, you make a request, turn on a light, turn on this, turn this off. Like how are we going to convince people that these are conversational devices? Yeah, in that vein, I just, there will always be a use case for controlling smart home stuff.

That I think is an absolutely solid use case that people want. Maybe that's the evolution of lights. switches or whatever. But I just wonder how smart, smart speakers are in terms of, like, everything happens on the phones. There's so much context we want to ask about it on our screens. And I kind of think that camera, like, I think world facing cameras of the future. And that's how we'll derive so much usefulness out of assistance in the future. But In these case, this stationary devices, I just wonder how much utility there is out of these basic

smart home commands. To what you were saying, do people want to have conversations with this stuff or is it more a one shot kind of thing? And to build on that, it's the idea like right now there's this distinct difference between Gemini and Gemini Live, which would be carried over onto the smart. speaker. You have to go ahead and enable to have this deeper, richer Gemini Live conversation versus General Command's. I'm just wondering what the thinking behind that is versus defaulting every experience to Gemini Live. I mean, this is kind of in the same ballpark. I will say that

I find Gemini as a voice assistant, because I guess it still technically is, It's more warm, if that makes sense. Do you know, like if you speak to the Google Assistant, like I sometimes speak to my Nest Mini in my kitchen, it feels really cold and almost distant as a device. It feels like I'm talking to a device. Yes, Gemini Live is a little bit more human-like, but I do wonder if that is something people are ready for.

Like, I don't know. I don't see anybody talking to chat GPT and Gemini that frequently in public. Maybe they're doing it in their headphones that I don't realize because it's almost like a phone call. I do wonder, I do wonder if Google can convince people and almost, because they're going to have to market this, right? Yeah. If they release this new hardware. How the heck are they going to market that this is, it's literally like having a phone call with, with an AI, to do things and to learn things and to have a conversation, right?

I wonder if we're maybe overthinking it, or not overthinking it, but maybe looking at it from the wrong point of view, right? Because I wonder if I was thinking, I was just thinking about like how long it's been since I've purchased a smart speaker. And I wonder if maybe Google just season in as people who have continued, you know, Damien, like yourself, continue to rely on a nest mini somewhere in their house, kitchen, living room, whatever, right? And they see an opportunity to be like, well, look, we, we have upgraded the speaker. It's got better sound. It's got better connectivity. So on and so forth. And also it's got Gemini now.

And like Gemini is, they will advertise it as the main feature, right? because that is this company. But I wonder if it's almost like, we can get them through the door just based on like, you're ready for a speaker upgrade. We now have a speaker upgrade for you. And we have left, you know, and this is assuming that it's got better audio, et cetera.

But like, we've left no stone unturned. It's an upgrade no matter how you look at it. I wonder if that wins out. Even if people end up just using, you know, Gemini on the speaker, basically the same way as they use assistant. Like, that might not be such a bad thing. Like I, it's why I've wanted and been so excited for Gemini to come to cars because I find it very frustrating when I'm driving to, to either have to repeat a command or to have to like re, re speak, restate context that I didn't realize it wouldn't keep from the last command I gave.

So on and so forth. Gemini fixes a lot of that. In theory, at least, obviously we haven't, I haven't used it in the car yet. But in theory, it fixes a lot of that. that could be true for at home too. And I don't know. I think that's like a pretty big upgrade, even if people still just kind of use it

to turn off smart lights. Yeah, so like context window. Yeah. I didn't even think of that. Yeah, because context window, when I saw the demo of Gemina Live in the car, I just knew straight away this is going to be incredible because it can pick out those contexts when you're doing something.

We all know everybody does this thing. And I guess this is why I'm excited for it to potentially be in the kitchen is you're doing something, you're focusing on a task, A, K-K. driving, you worried about, like, safety. Oh, is a vehicle going to come from this way? Do I need to turn right here? You get in all of this information as well as trying to focus on driving. And Gemini is like, okay, I'm going to just work around you.

It's going to be kind of a smooth experience. Obviously, I saw it in an optimum situation. I'm really excited for it to roll out and to test it in my own car. But, yeah, the possibilities there do actually, they work, right? It's something that could potentially improve people's home. How hard works because it's an extension of your phone, your messages, your directions. I just, to what you were saying, Will, about a speaker upgrade. Do people upgrade the speakers?

I'm sure we all know people are using even the original Google Home or at least the first gen home mini. It's the upgrade proposition. I feel like for speakers is one of the hardest things. And I'm curious how competitive this. I think the issue for Google here is they need to really emphasize this is a next-gen device. Because I would not be surprised if so many people are happy with the existing thing. It's almost like furniture.

You don't really upgrade furniture. It exists in the background. So I'm just wondering how I feel like. like to sell this Gemini speaker, I feel like they really have to, really have to emphasize it's a whole next generation experience versus, because we've seen Gemini on the Nest audio and Nest second gen. I don't think, I think Google has to upgrade those devices. There's too many out there for Google to just keep it on assistant. Yeah, I agree.

I think the biggest thing for them is that if they can hit this launch window in the next month or so, right? Like, I think they can kind of just get the ball rolling on the holiday season momentum alone, right? Like, I do think there's a lot to be said for like, we have this exciting new gadget. It costs, I don't know, $100 or whatever they end up pricing it at. And as you said, if they can market it as this is next gen. So not just it's got Gemini now, but. It's got Gemini now, it's got better audio support. It can do, I don't know, they come up with something.

They use some of that, like, local, you know, ultra wideband stuff that they've, they've demoed at CES before. Yeah, like on the, like on the pixel tablet. Yes, yes. If they, if they, I think that's awesome. That needs to be there. Yeah, if they can, so if they can get the, like, tap to play stuff in there, if they can sync it with, um, if they can do some of that, like Apple TV HomePod Mini Magic with the Google

TV streamer, which I don't think that. that's how this TV stream, but you guys can connect me, but like, I don't think it's quite as, as seamless, uh, with the current nest stuff.

So if they can make it, you know, an ecosystem play, a next gen ecosystem play powered by Gemini. And it's $100, $130. I think, you know,

and it's on stores for Christmas. I do think they could probably, this is the other thing. It has been long enough since they've made one of these that I do think they can, and, and be just because of how fast and distalled of plays now. You can be like, do you remember how much you liked your 2016 Google home that you maybe

still have plugged in in a spare room or something? Like, come get a new one. Like, it's been 10 years. Come buy a new one. I do think there is some wiggle room. I'm not saying to the success maybe of the original first couple models. I think the fad has died down a bit. But I don't know.

I think they could do it if they tie all this together. It's a tight it's a tight rope to walk, though, I would say. I do think there was a lot of people out there and I'm sure people listening out there are desperate for a new form factor. It's almost like, it's almost like if you have something in your lineup for so long,

everyone's like, are you going to do the new one yet? Can you just do the new one? Like the latest nest, have they released any new cameras of the last couple of years? Nope. I have the nest doorbell, the nest battery doorbell.

And even just the form, factor change was enough to me to think, do you know what? I want that on my front door. Like, the original one was a little bit too techy, if that makes sense. I think Google's really, really managed that. Of any of the lineups, I do think the NEST speaker slash home speaker lineup has been the best in terms of like integration into your home, home decor, a spare room, whatever it is. Like, I think that is where Google really, really shines, save the Chromecast, which was hidden behind the TV, but yeah, that's kind of a separate thing. I do wonder, I do wonder, How are they going to convince people like me and maybe you will, for instance,

and I can't remember how many Nest hubs you have, Abner, but how are people going to switch away? Because I don't personally want to give away that display option. And if it's just pure speaker with no visual element, like I know Gemini Live is going to be, it's speech, you want people to have conversations. How the heck are they going to convince people that that is the future of interacting with their eyes? Like, I don't know.

I think that's a toughest sell from where I'm sat. Yeah, it is interesting that that's where they're starting. They're starting with a speaker, this is a display. Of course, there's some context of that is the pixel tabit fiasco, I think I can call it this point, and what their plans for a future Nestub are. But it's interesting they started with the audio. I said this earlier this year and we saw it at CES,

but it kind of seems to me that the future of smart display is Google TV in terms of, we know Gemini is coming to Google TV, and it has a visual component to it. The only smart speaker currently plugged into my, anywhere in my house, actually, is the Nestub Max that we have in the kitchen, which we did not buy at launch. In fact, I think we got for free when we moved here and signed up for Verizon Fios. And Verizon Fios was like, do you want a free Nestub Max? like, yeah, sure. That's fine. When I think about what we use that for, first of all,

and maybe, you know, this perhaps says a lot about the state of assistant or just how my house uses voice assistants in general, but that I don't remember the last time the mic and camera were turned on on it. It's, it does not have that, right? So it is, that doesn't mean it's not smart at all. We, we cast do it a bunch of the time. But like, to what I was saying earlier, my sound bar is not that far away like the living room is next to the kitchen the sound bar has better sound so usually if i'm going to cast to something if i'm if i'm casting music i cast it to the sound bar um so the things it's used for the most are it's a photo frame right like it is just constantly showing like old and and then updated photos of our cats that's how i have it set up that

those photos automatically get added to a folder that folder is what's shown on the display so that works great. And then it's, you know, YouTube or whatever, usually YouTube, um, or music. If, if I'm, uh, cooking or if Maddie is baking, something like that. And that's 99% of, of, of what it's used for, right? So to me, it's like, the pixel tablet is so frustrating because I thought it was a really good idea on paper before they launched it. I thought it had a lot of shortcomings when they launched it. And I was like, certainly they'll, they'll iron all of this out in in gen 2. It will be the smart display that I've always kind of wanted, which is, which is modular and

can can kind of be a tablet, a smart display, and a smart speaker all in one. And that's not really what the first gen model was. And now that it's the only gen model seemingly, you know, I'm hoping that like the Nest Hub max comes back for like another round now that this like the route they tried to take with with smart displays just didn't, they didn't pull it off. You know, the Gemini stuff doesn't matter a ton to me on a smart display specifically. They can make it, you know, kind of just look like how Gemini or Gemini Live looks on your phone and I'd be fine with that.

Because again, like, the display was not really what we were using assistant for or whatever. Like it was, it's there to show photos and videos. And that's what I would want out of a next gen model as well. do you think if Google focuses on the speaker form factor I'm in the same boat I genuinely think that 99.9% of my Nestub usage is just using it as a picture frame and I do ask it to play radio and things like that

and I do cast the odd thing here and there like if it's just a purely audio focused release in the interim are people going to go look at the Echo Show I guess that comes back to the idea of do you need to upgrade a smart speaker ever you just have it once and it's done. But at the same time,

tying into what you said just a moment ago, Abner, with the idea that if Google TV is going to be this home, I never leave my TV on. And my TV's power themselves off anything. People do. Yeah, like people do. I know.

But I just, in my mind, I can't believe that's a thing because I have a couple of LG TVs. They power off after 15 minutes of inactivity. Yeah. I'm just wondering if Google can do something kind of cool here. Yeah, it's like an ambient display. The idea is.

Yeah, but if you have an ambient display with the Nest Hub, the new Nest version, whatever it is, Nest speaker, as the, like the conduit for that. I do wonder if there's going to be some cool tie-ins with it and maybe they can put the visuals on the screen. That was promised with the original Google Home and Chromecast. I'm not sure if that how,

I've honestly forgotten how far that's gotten, but the original demo was like, show me my schedule, and it would show it to you on your Chromecast-connected TV. That was 10 years ago almost. now. And like, I feel like that's kind of lost the plot. But, yeah, I do feel like it's telling that Google chose a speaker first. Again, like, they're still probably sorting out with it, what their future of displays are. But it comes back to the speaker. They,

smart home commands, I still think that's the number one thing. Two, is they have to get people to want to have these long-form conversations or maybe multi-person conversations. You're having a group chat with a smart speaker. But I don't know, I'm still at a point where I think, I don't know, maybe five, ten years down the road, everybody just wears an earbud or at least one earbud in their ear. And that's how they get their primary help or if grass has happened by then. Do you think, yeah, but I wonder if this is like almost the first phase of that. Like getting people used to doing it anywhere because you're

going to be wearing an earbud anyway. You kind of, like I said a bit before, I think it, an earbud is not as passive as you might think. Yes, you have to go and think, oh, I'm going to have to put that earbut and have to charge it, I have to make sure it's there, whereas something constantly connected to the internet and constantly connected to the wall, is just something you can spark up a conversation within the same room.

Like, I still think smart spookers are smart, if I can say it, smart spookers, it's not quite spooky season yet, but it's smart speakers in, perfect in that kitchen scenario. I think,

because it's, I mean, I'm a chaotic cook. So for me, having something to kind of either play music and take care of things, I don't have to, like,

dry my hands to touch my phone or whatever it is. Like, I think that's fast. That's another thing. That's when we have Astra being able to control your phone, what is the role of a smart display? I know it's bigger. Well, is it that much bigger?

Is it that much bigger of a screen? Yeah, maybe not now. Maybe not like it used to be. I guess when you look at the original Nest Hub and Home Hub, they don't have the biggest screens now. I mean, they're still fine, but they're definitely not the biggest. I do wonder how they're, yeah, it's almost like reselling somebody,

something you've already sold them. Like how is Google? It's going to be fascinating because the way that you can do it with the smartphone is, oh, we have this new AI feature that you can use on the display. Whereas with a smart speaker, it's like, yeah, there's nothing to see.

It's everything to hear and interact with your voice. Like maybe better voice recognition. I mean, that's a given in 10 years. Yeah, I can definitely foresee them if they're going to market this quite widely. It's probably going to be, they've done it with Gemini, right? Oh, what can I make with these ingredients in my fridge? probably going to do the same thing again,

but are people ready or want that anymore? I don't know. This is all, I had not really thought, because both of you brought, like, Abner, you've brought up like ambient computing

and then, and then Damien like multimodal, multims, which is such a focus with Google right now. And obviously, that doesn't work if it's, that doesn't work with any Nest product. It obviously doesn't work with a,

with a speaker, but it also doesn't really work with a smart display where you are. It's like a front facing camera. Yeah, it's got a front facing camera, but it is, it is,

you put it on your counter and it lives there, right? Like it doesn't, you don't move it, which is why a second gen Google pixel tablet with all of those problems fixed would have been smart,

but hey, I don't, I don't run Google. You know, but like, but like, yeah, I guess I hadn't considered that like,

in a lot of ways, neither of these products and Google has shown off the smart or at least tease the smart speaker so we know it's real we're not just speculating about it but neither of them really do match the jemini era in a lot of ways because of those multimodal things i wonder if it is a thing where it's like you can pull out your phone and like use the camera but the response still comes from the speaker or something i don't really know who would want that but like i could see them building something like that just to be like that's the connectivity we're

talking about but but i don't know it is it is tricky go ahead abner like i have the thing let's get a bit more fundamental. Should Google have a smart speaker? Very good question. I feel like, oh, yeah, that is a... It has to have a display for me. I think it has to have a display. So it still feels weird.

And this is... I'm someone, like I say, I have three Nest minis. One of them is actually a home mini, I think. So... Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I think this feels like a sideways-type play. and what I mean by that is

do you remember how they just gave away the home mini and the Ness Mini and the Ness Mini like it was going out of fashion like they literally gave that away to everyone for anything it was a bonanza yeah you looked at Google's homepage here have three Nest

Nest Minis have a Home Hub like whatever it is just take as many as you want I think I have four of them and I think one of them was purchased and I do think it was purchased on sale Google One it was like 30 bucks or something yeah

yeah like a discount I just feel like this could be the way this is the I don't want it's not Trojan horse, if I can say it, Trojan horse for Gemini, like get it into people's homes, the kind of people who don't necessarily, like, the kind of people who are like rabid consumers, they want a new speaker. Oh, my, my nest mini is dirty now and it's got cooking stains all over it. And it doesn't sound as good as it used to. And it doesn't fit with my decor from, like,

I've done my, I've, I've remodeled my house, my apartment, whatever it is. And you're like, oh, I want a nice, like, kind of contemporary speaker. Because, The leaked image, was it with Lando Norris? It was almost like a bulb. It did look a lot better, I will say. Google's interior design style slash product design team have done wonders over the last few years. I think a lot of the products are fantastic,

especially the Google TV streamer. If they start marketing it to the kind of people who are going to go to, I mean, here in the UK, we have a place called John Lewis. Google has big partnerships with them. They showcase them in like the best home settings possible. I do wonder if, I don't know, I don't know, David and Mariah, whatever, just shopping one day and they see this in like the, in an amazingly pristine fake living room and they're like,

hmm, that could be a really nice addition to my home set up. But then you therefore have Gemini at home now with less than $100, less than £100. Yeah. I feel like that might be the way that they're doing it. It's just a vehicle for Gemini. And Gemini is almost ubiquitous at that point then. people also just do love speakers like as much as people don't upgrade them i i feel like you scroll through amazon and there's a billion new bluetooth speakers every year and i know this is a little

different because it's not you can't just throw it in your bag but like i even just sometimes find myself buying new bluetooth speakers because i find it in a uh a form a form factor that i like um you know and and and so i don't know i feel like maybe there is something to the fact of like well if we just make a speaker, there will be X amount of people who buy it. And maybe, maybe those people, maybe this is a play for people who don't use Gemini on their phone, right? And those people do exist where it's just like, oh, I don't press and hold the power button or I don't activate it with the app. Like maybe there is a certain amount of people, you know, whether it's older users or even just younger users. Like I don't, I don't know what the demographic is. But there are people

who just want that like, oh, it's always a round thing. I'm not pulling up my phone type situation that they've been trained on with assistant. And so it does make sense for Google to make something like this, even if, again, it doesn't sell at the Google Home, initial Google Home numbers. But that also ties into a little bit to like, there are people who use Google Home systems and don't use Android, right? They don't use Google products. And I know we've just seen Gemini hit the top of the iOS charts, which is in and of itself probably deserves a full podcast. I do wonder if this is a way to almost be like, hey, Apple has a home pod,

but we have this speaker, which we'll do a lot more. Like, it ties into all of these services. And just, just the optics of having it on the shelves, having it on the Google store is huge. Like,

so maybe, maybe that's something. It's arguably advertising for Gemini. Just having, just have in the way that like having a bunch of work, or like works with assistant, like logos on, on GAM.

for the last 10 years was advertising for assistant. Like there is a certain, you know, especially when you're fighting chat GPT, there is a certain level of like, look, this is essentially just taking out ad space in every Walmart and Best Buy. Like we're just advertising Gemini through these speakers that people are going to buy to give to relatives at Christmas because they don't know what else to buy. And it'll be a perfectly fine gift. Yeah.

So to the question that was asked, does should Google have a smart speaker? I think we're coming around to, yes, but I just see this as a one-time thing. I don't see a line up. At one point, we're at the Google Home, we had the Google Home, Mini, we had the Google Home Max. Google has gotten rid of the Max when the audio came out. So I just think this is a one-and-done deal. And I don't know.

I don't see this as a lineup thing anymore. I just think, like, there's an obligatory obligation almost to have one device in this form factor to update the Nest Mini and the Nest audio to merge them. I'd be really surprised if we see anything else in this lineup. Maybe we see one more Nest Hub. Again, the last, what, five years old

since the last hub and those Baker. I just think they do need one in the lineup. I think we've made the case for that. but I just think this is, they just, there's an obligate, they need to fill like, by the numbers construction. It's, they should have one and they need to have one in the line, but that's it. And, yeah. I do wonder if maybe this is a, is this a play, like a temporary play as Google figures out

whatever it wants. We have not heard a lot of rumblings about like an AI only gadget from Google because they have the pixel line, but every other company seems... Well, they have phones. But every other like AI, big AI company seems this seems to have this idea of an AI gadget in their minds. And I have to imagine that like some people in Google have this vision. Is this the kind of thing where like they're, you know, this is their dedicated Gemini

hardware for now. And in a few years, maybe they have cracked something that is more wearable as you're saying, Abner, more more. ambient more always on whether it is some kind of earpiece whether it's something you wear but like I don't know what that is but I could see Google being like nobody really nobody has figured this out we have smart speakers are tried and tested let's do let's have this be our dedicated Gemini hardware for now and like we'll take another crackhead I honestly think that that dedicated Gemini hardware is your phone and there's the I agree with you there's like there's two

mobile operating systems. That's what you're going to have for the foreseeable future. But you have to remember that Google is answering to shareholders as well who are going to want to see them competing with whatever OpenAI has in the works, like all of these companies, like Google is, Google does have pressure from their shareholders to not just keep making phones to like try to push into something new. And so it wouldn't surprise me if that this is their, this is kind of their like half measure crack out. In far future, it's grasses. Google has laid out a comprehensive fan for grasses and XR. So I do think that's the future.

That's a clearly stated future that everybody in the industry is working towards with display miniaturization, camera miniaturization for the grasses form factor. I guess we can briefly touch upon the idea of dedicated AI devices, as I don't think we ever did anything in the humane pin or whatever. I think it's glasses. I don't see anything. The display is such an important thing. Like, you need to be able, for anything to replace the smartphone.

At one point, I thought that smart glasses could replace the smartphone. Maybe they still can. But I just see the smartphone being there for the foreseeable future. Because there's a display that you can be productive. on. I wonder as well. I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a moment. I wonder as well that if this product exists,

Google will have the numbers. I'm pretty sure we could look up the numbers and find a fairly accurate summation of how many Nest speaker form factors have been sold. I guarantee I'm going to put my neck on the line. I would not be surprised if they tend to one out number pixel phones.

So I wonder if they, if the vehicle is pixel for Gemini and they're selling it as a Gemini phone, well, there isn't that many of them globally to kind of blanket the market, whereas a speaker is a little bit easier to blanket the market with. Like, I feel like, yeah, they give them away for anything. Have Google One storage, have a Nest Mini, have a whatever it is. And I also think that with regards to ChatGPT, they don't have a piece of hardware.

Right. And if they can get a partner to make that piece of hardware, Google is getting ahead of that. Yeah. Like ChatGPT is still probably more popular in a lot of ways than Gemini in terms of like everyone's usage cases. but I just get the impression that this could be that first step. Google has said, okay, we're going to preempt this and go ahead, whether or not it's the right form factor I don't know.

But I'm excited to see what happens. I don't know what you guys are thinking. I want to see some cool colors. I want to test this out for myself. I want to see exactly what Google's made of in terms of this is one of those products that really got me deeper into that Google ecosystem. The one thing that they'll sell me is on-device transcription. Interesting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speech attacks is pretty fast in the grad scheme. We know how fast could be or like Gboard on our pixels. But I wonder if they do, I don't know, maybe it's a non-issue at this point that everybody's internet speeds are excellent enough. But I want to see if anything instantaneous is possible or anything that feels even more faster. I mean, I guess we saw the Rando demo already.

him giving commands. But some innovation there would really make me more excited about upgrading my stuff, my existing speaker lineup. Yeah, it would have to be, you know, and it's kind of what I've been saying, but it would have to be a full like next gen. Like there are some, like every aspect of this is an upgrade over what you've shipped before, not just it's what you liked about Google smart speakers before, but now it's got Gemini.

Like it's got a, it has to be more than just. that for me. I think it can be, but as, as we've also seen with something like the pixel tablet, just because you can see the vision doesn't mean that's what the actual product will be. So, like, you know, I will have to hold out and wait to see what this actually is beyond that initial teaser we got. Yeah, I think that's a fantastic place to end. We will very much be looking, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. Failure or not. I think it's going to be interesting to see. I love gadgets. That's a fantastic way. That's like, I want, I want some, you know, we've been in a bit of a dry spell for some gadgets.

I want like a fun, not a phone, not a tablet. I want something that like I can spend, you know, one or $200 on and get like a fun little experience out of. And that's, that's what this could be. I just want it to have pixel snap. I want it to have pixel snap. I was going to suggest this. It's obviously not there, right?

Like you can't, but like, they should make a, they should make a smart speaker that, that also like make a little bedside speaker that mounts my pixel 10. Come on. Come on, Google. That would be so cool. Hey, Google, that's free on us. You can have that one for free. No, it's not.

You have to contact us for licensing. Yes, I just want to say thanks, guys, for joining me. I love talking Nest. We don't talk about it enough, I don't think. Hopefully we'll be talking about it a lot more in the next few months. And yeah, maybe we'll see some cool, cool hardware as well. Supplies. Yes, I hope so.

Yes. Legendary. Cheers, guys, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye. Bye.