Google Home Public Preview after Enabling Gemini

[AnotherTXUser]

This forum is intended for users to share experiences after enabling Gemini that are using google Home Public Preview. The intent is for Gemini users to have an improved user experience quicker by drawing on other user experiences that are shared here. Please make your replies to this thread constructive. Issues encountered, workarounds and use experiences are fine. My use is IOS, so I flagged this post accordingly. Android and Web are also welcome as well.

[bayiavm]

Thanks for setting this up. I’ll share my iOS experiences with Gemini on Google Home Public Preview, including issues, workarounds, and general usage. Feedback from Android and Web users is also welcome.

[AnotherTXUser]

I'll start with some of my experience and a workaround I discovered.

Experience: After I enabled Gemini in Google Home, I discovered that, there is no rolling back to Google Assistant. I'm sure somewhere in the fine print, that was stated, but I missed it. If anyone knows something different, please chime in. So, with gemini enabled things like my smart remote for my TV stopped working.

Workaround: I switched my DirecTV Air receiver to another Google Account that was not part of my Google Home at the time I enabled Gemini. After a power cycle on my remote and DirecTV Air receiver, my smart remote Google Assistant feature started working again.  My understanding is that my workaround only works because my DirecTV Air receiver is not a device in my Google Home. The DirecTV Air receiver, apparently, does not have a way to stream to it, other than the Apps it supports. The TV is standalone. The remote only uses the Google Assistant feature through the Google account setup for it.

[sleetish]

There's no rolling back, it does say that on activating it.  I didn't expect it to be this much worse than the regular assistant.  It's good at answering questions like an LLM.  It's bad at being a home assistant voice interface.  I ask it to turn on the lights when I'm in the bedroom.  It turns on the lights in other parts of the house.  I ask it to turn off my clearly labeled air purifier, it switches off my HVAC unit.  I set up a routine for the specific phrases of turning on and off my air purifier...   It works about 50% of the time...  the other 50 it switches off the HVAC unit. 

I might not be able to switch back, but I can **bleep** sure switch to something else.  I'd say they've got about a week of this before I do that or build my own.

[GabrielaG]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for reaching out to the Google Nest Community. I understand you are looking to establish a dedicated space for users to share their constructive feedback, issues, and workarounds regarding Gemini in the Google Home Public Preview. I'm glad to share more information.

We are always striving to make our support and products better. Your feedback is essential in helping us refine Gemini for Home. Please continue to let us know what you think, as all feedback helps us grow. You can best share this by saying, “Hey Google, send feedback,” or on the dedicated community thread.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Regards,

Gabriela