Google's Gemini Speaker Breaks Seven Years of Smart Speaker Stasis

Google released a Gemini-powered Home Speaker on 17 June 2026 with multi-turn conversational capability, ending the smart speaker category's functional stagnation since 2019. Prior devices ran command-response systems; Gemini enables context-aware dialogue and open-ended reasoning. The critical unknown: whether users will abandon the habit of discrete voice commands for fluid conversation. The hardware is competent; the software is the bet.