By Ben Schoon
Publication Date: 2026-05-03 22:30:00
Gemini is reviving the idea of a smart speaker for Google, with the upcoming “Google Home Speaker” being the first new hardware in years. Meanwhile, it sounds like we might also be seeing a revival of third-party smart speakers in the Gemini era, something we’ve not seen in quite a while.
For quite some time, “Google Assistant smart speaker” didn’t refer to just Google’s first-party hardware. Sure, everyone knows about the Google Home Mini and, to a lesser extent, the Nest Audio, but there was once a thriving market of third-party Assistant speakers from the likes of JBL and countless others. For some time, everyone was making an Assistant smart speaker.
Then, they mostly vanished.
The last memorable smart speaker with Google Assistant was 2023’s JBL Authentics lineup – which were excellent, by the way.
That seems to be coming to an end as we approach Gemini’s full launch. A product…
