This must-have Google update makes Gemini less chatty, and I couldn’t be happier

If you’ve ever asked your smart speaker/smart assistant to do something simple and got a full sentence back when two words (or none) would’ve done, a new Google update will be your saviour.

Its latest Gemini for Home update, spotted by 9to5Google, is all about cutting the faff. For starters, Google says everyday commands like “turn on the lights” are now up to 40 per cent faster.

The bigger win, though, is that Gemini is learning when to shut up. Instead of replying with something like “Alright, I’ve created an alarm for 9 AM”, it’ll now just say “Alarm set for 9 AM.” Yes, it’s a minor change, but it axes the sort of unnecessary padding that’s always irked me.

The new Google update has also put a fair bit of work into alarms and timers. You can now ask Gemini to set an alarm based on real-world knowledge, like the start of the FIFA World Cup. It can also tell you not just how much time is left on a timer, but what the original time was in the first place.

You can also now bundle multiple timer and alarm commands into one go – so “cancel my timer, then set a new one” should work as expected – while recurring alarms and snoozing have both had fixes too. Google specifically calls out weekday wake-up alarms and snoozing until a certain time.

Calendar handling also has a small but useful boost as well. Gemini can now create multiple calendar events with the same details, so if you’ve made one lunch booking and want to drop the same thing into next week, you won’t need to start from scratch.

Beyond productivity, Gemini is also getting better at detecting local weather units and surfacing more relevant local news. Google’s Gemini Live translation mode is apparently now “significantly quicker” too, with support spanning 30 languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Thai, Turkish, and Ukrainian. So if you’re using it for live back-and-forth translation, that experience should feel a bit less laggy.

There are Home app changes as well, and these might matter more if you like tinkering. Google is expanding Ask Home, Home Brief, Help me create, and Gemini for Home camera features beyond its earlier rollout markets. 

On top of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the US, those features are now heading to countries including France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

None of this is especially flashy on its own. But taken together, they sound like welcome improvements that should, in theory, help minimise daily frustrations for grumpy, impatient users like myself.

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Esat Dedezade Contributor

About

Esat has been a gadget fan ever since his tiny four-year-old brain was captivated by a sound-activated dancing sunflower. From there it was a natural progression to a Sega Mega Drive, a brief obsession with hedgehogs, and a love for all things tech. After 7 years as a writer and deputy editor for Stuff, Esat ventured out into the corporate world, spending three years as Editor of Microsoft's European News Centre. Now a freelance writer, his appetite for shiny gadgets has no bounds. Oh, and like all good human beings, he's very fond of cats.