Google is taking pre-orders for a new Home Speaker with Gemini, priced at $99.99 in the United States. It combines a speaker with Google's latest AI assistant, Gemini, which can answer questions, control your smart home, and understand longer conversations than older voice assistants.

The price places it between Google's cheapest speaker option and its premium models. It directly competes with Amazon's Echo speakers, which have dominated the smart speaker market for years.

What Makes Gemini Different

Gemini is Google's newest AI assistant, and it works better for longer conversations than the older Google Assistant. If you ask your speaker "who's attending my staff meeting," you can then say "who's free Thursday" without having to repeat context. The assistant remembers what you were just talking about. It also understands requests that aren't perfectly worded and works more smoothly with your calendar, messages, and smart home devices.

Google already let some existing Home speaker users test Gemini before building this new speaker. This new hardware is designed specifically around Gemini's capabilities.

Google's Bigger AI Plan

This speaker is part of a larger strategy. Samsung is adding Gemini to its home robot. A major phone company in the Philippines is using Gemini in its workplace tools. Google also announced a new platform for businesses to build their own AI tools powered by Gemini. The pattern is clear: Google wants Gemini to be the AI system you encounter whether you own a Google device, work at a company, or use a smart home product.

Amazon and Apple are pursuing similar plans with their own AI assistants, but Google's search data, cloud services, and variety of hardware give it unique advantages in this space.

The Bottom Line

At $99.99, Google is targeting the same customers who buy Amazon Echo speakers. The company tried smart speakers before and learned a hard lesson: people stopped using them when the assistant wasn't capable enough. Gemini's improved conversation skills give this new speaker a stronger reason to buy, but the real test is how well it actually works in your home, not what the marketing materials claim.

You can pre-order the speaker now through Google's store, though Google hasn't announced when it will ship.