{"id":33691,"date":"2025-09-30T08:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T08:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/technologies\/google-home-4-0-54-adds-ask-home-gemini-chat\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T08:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T08:21:12","slug":"google-home-4-0-54-adds-ask-home-gemini-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/technologies\/google-home-4-0-54-adds-ask-home-gemini-chat\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Home 4.0.54 adds \u201cask Home\u201d Gemini chat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dataconomy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1112952.jpg\" alt=\"Google Home 4.0.54 adds \u201cask Home\u201d Gemini chat\" title=\"Google Home 4.0.54 adds \u201cask Home\u201d Gemini chat\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Google has started rolling out a redesigned Home app for iPhone, version 4.0.54, which introduces an \u201cAsk Home\u201d feature. Released Saturday, the update brings a more rounded app icon with a gradient color palette. For users in the Public Preview program, the new interface appears after relaunching the app and is highlighted by a glow animation around an \u201cAsk [Home name]\u201d bar.<\/p>\n<p>The new design consolidates navigation at the top of the screen. A left-hand circle button toggles Home or Away status, while a vertical pill-shaped \u201cplus\u201d button opens a menu to add items like a Device, Speaker group, or Automation. The adjacent account menu lists options for Settings, What\u2019s new, and Public Preview, among others. The app itself is simplified to three bottom tabs: Home, Activity, and Automations. The Home tab organizes content into swipeable top feeds for categories such as Favorites, Devices, Cameras, and Lights. A rounded rectangle indicates the current selection. While bottom bar icons are new, the core device tiles and the layouts for the Activity and Automations tabs remain unchanged, as do the now-playing controls.<\/p>\n<p>Launching the \u201cAsk Home\u201d function requires users to first \u201cAcknowledge Gemini for Home disclosures.\u201d This action opens a chat interface with a carousel of device tiles that can be tapped to toggle power or open a full control page. Initially, the feature operates as a device search, populating tiles, actions, and Automations as a user types. Advanced prompts are not yet functional, with an in-app message stating, \u201cAsk Home isn\u2019t ready for your home yet, but you\u2019ll get a notification once it is.\u201d The complete redesign is expected to launch on Wednesday, following company announcements.<\/p>\n<p>Google\u2019s disclaimer page for Ask Home provides additional context on the new Gemini-powered assistant, outlining several key operational aspects for users in a shared household.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Household availability:<\/strong> The voice assistant will be accessible to everyone in the home, including guests. Google notes that \u201cothers in the home may be able to hear responses in shared spaces.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Video history access:<\/strong> With Voice Match enabled, household members can search and view video history from compatible cameras on smart displays, an action subject to the user\u2019s subscription type. A setting is available to \u201cswitch to audio-only camera history results for smart displays.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gemini live functionality:<\/strong> When using the Gemini Live feature, the device\u2019s microphone \u201cwill remain active to easily allow follow-up queries without the need to say \u2018Hey Google\u2019 again.\u201d The microphone turns off after brief inactivity, and users can manually end a conversation. A visible device indicator shows when the mic is active, and Google advises users to \u201cmake sure others in your home are aware that the mic will remain on during that time.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Featured image credit<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google has started rolling out a redesigned Home app for iPhone, version 4.0.54, which introduces an \u201cAsk Home\u201d feature. Released Saturday, the update brings a more rounded app icon with a gradient color palette. For users in the Public Preview program, the new interface appears after relaunching the app and is highlighted by a glow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technologies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}