What we want to see in the next Google Home Nest speaker - Android

With the original Google Home now out of stock or unavailable at retailers, there’s speculation that a replacement in-home smart speaker is waiting in the wings. What features could this possible Google Home Nest speaker offer that would make it stand out from the really, really crowded field of Assistant-powered gear from Google?

Here are a few changes and new features we’d want to see.

What is Google Nest?

Let’s start with a quick run though the Google Home history. Google introduced the original Google Home in November 2016. The Google Home was a stout, humble-looking speaker meant to blend in with the decor of most homes. Google Home served as a way to get Google Assistant off of phones and more widely available to people in their homes. It was followed a year later by the much smaller Google Home Mini (above) and the much larger Google Home Max. Where the former of these two sequels offered Google Assistant in a small, puck-like form factor, the latter was an over-sized, music-focused beast. This gave Google small, medium, and large Home speaker offerings.

Then there are the Google Nest products, including the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max (below), which added displays to the smart speaker concept. Google introduced the Nest branding after it incorporated its purchase of Nest (the company) into its own line of smart home products.

Eventually, Google refreshed and rebranded the Home Mini to the Google Nest Mini in late 2019. Google gave the Nest Mini a better-sounding speaker. It’s a safe bet that any new speakers from Google will bear the Nest (and not the Home) brand.

After three and a half years it makes sense that Google would retire the original Google Home. This leaves us asking, what’s left for the Google Home to do? Here are some things we’d like to see from a new Google Home Nest smart speaker.

See also: What’s the best smart speaker you can buy?

New Google Home Nest smart speaker: What we want to see

1. Sound better

Google pitched the original Google Home as a solid option for those seeking a simple speaker setup for their living room or kitchen. True enough, the device, with its connection to Google Play Music, Spotify, and others, was an easy way to get voice-accessible music in certain rooms. But it didn’t sound good.

Despite having three drivers, sound from the Google Home came across as muddy and lacking depth. Even the Assistant’s voice was boomy in all the wrong ways. Treble was nowhere to be heard. It just wasn’t a good experience.

See also: The best Google Assistant devices

If Google does anything with fresh Nest hardware, it ought to step up its audio game. After all, Google is competing with the likes of Sonos and many other dedicated speaker makers for the same consumer dollars. Please, Google, make a better-sounding Nest speaker.

Also, make it easier to control the volume. The touch-sensitive controls of the Home are anything but exact. Moreover, saying, “Hey, Google, turn down the volume,” gets really old (particularly when it doesn’t turn down the volume enough the first time).

2. Be faster

I have the OG Google Home speaker in my living room and a Google Nest Mini in the adjacent dining room. Often — and despite being physically closer to the Google Home speaker — the Nest Mini will react to my voice commands before the Home does. The Nest Mini has better mics and a better processor, so it handles things quicker.

The Marvell Armada processor in the original Home is clearly outdated. A number of companies, such as Mediatek, could provide a fresh engine for the new Google Home. Mediatek powers a lot of Amazon’s Echo smart home products. I’d expect Google to update the internals of a new Nest speaker, but the company needs to focus on solving the speed of command recognition and resulting action. The mics would also play a role here.

Google used to be all about speed. Hopefully it embraces that old mantra with some speedier Nest hardware.

3. Power? Optional