TLDR: When can users of Google 's there versions of its Nest Hub devices expect integration of Gemini?
It’s hard not to notice the gap.
Pixel phones have had Gemini for a while now — powerful, multimodal, context-aware AI. If I recall correctly, it first arrived on Pixel devices in late 2023.
But over in smart display land? We’re still using Google Assistant — the same version from 2016 (or what feels like the same version). I’ve been using Google Assistant since I bought the first-gen Google Nest Hub in 2018, and honestly, the experience hasn’t meaningfully changed (unless I am seriously misremembering extreme advances in Google Assistant's capabilities, but I don't think that's the case, I think it's been pretty stagnant).
Let’s lay it out:
The original Nest Hub came out in 2018.
The Nest Hub Max followed in 2019 with upgraded hardware.
The 2nd gen Nest Hub launched in 2021.
Despite that, none of these devices have received Gemini.
This isn’t a hardware limitation — Gemini was pushed to Pixel 6 and 7 series devices, which have comparable or lesser specs. So why is the Android ecosystem so fragmented?
It’s wild to think that in 2025, I am still issuing voice commands to a 9-year-old "assistant" that never developed mentally into even a teenager, on products that Google still sells.
There’s no upgrade path. No formal Gemini roadmap for smart displays. Just silence — or, more recently, vague promises to expand Gemini “across devices,” with no specific mention of the Nest Hub line.
For a company that claims it wants AI “everywhere,” this kind of internal inconsistency is getting harder to defend.TLDR: When can users of Google 's there versions of its Nest Hub devices expect integration of Gemini?
It’s hard not to notice the gap.
Pixel phones have had Gemini for a while now — powerful, multimodal, context-aware AI. If I recall correctly, it first arrived on Pixel devices in late 2023.
But over in smart display land? We’re still using Google Assistant — the same version from 2016 (or what feels like the same version). I’ve been using Google Assistant since I bought the first-gen Google Nest Hub in 2018, and honestly, the experience hasn’t meaningfully changed (unless I am seriously misremembering extreme advances in Google Assistant's capabilities, but I don't think that's the case, I think it's been pretty stagnant).
Let’s lay it out:
The original Nest Hub came out in 2018.
The Nest Hub Max followed in 2019 with upgraded hardware.
The 2nd gen Nest Hub launched in 2021.
Despite that, none of these devices have received Gemini.
I have both the first and second generation devices, and had thought Gemini would have been pushed easily into at least the second generation version months ago by now.
This isn’t a hardware limitation — Gemini was pushed to Pixel 6 and 7 series devices, which have comparable or lesser specs. So why is the Android ecosystem so fragmented?
It’s wild to think that in 2025, I am still issuing voice commands to a 9-year-old "assistant" that never developed mentally into even a teenager, on products that Google still sells.
There’s no upgrade path. No formal Gemini roadmap for smart displays. Just silence — or, more recently, vague promises to expand Gemini “across devices,” with no specific mention of the Nest Hub line.
For a company that claims it wants AI “everywhere,” this kind of internal inconsistency is getting harder to defend.
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