is a senior reviewer focused on smart home and connected tech, with over twenty years of experience. She has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
Hi! I’m Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (aka Jen), The Verge’s smart home reviewer. I just spent the last week in New York City checking out the new smart displays, smart speakers, smart voice assistants, and smart security cameras launched by Amazon and Google. I haven’t tested any of them yet, but I’ve had some hands-on time with the new gadgets and spoken with folks at both companies about the new features.
I’m hosting a subscriber-only AMA on the site today, Friday, October 3rd. Just ask your questions in the comments on this post, and my editor, Nathan Edwards, and I will join you here at 1 PM ET to answer as many as we can.
To catch you up: on Tuesday, Amazon launched new Echo Show smart displays and Echo smart speakers that come with its new AI-powered Alexa Plus voice assistant, which is more conversational, smarter, and (mostly) better able to manage your smart home.
The company also revealed a bunch of new Ring smart security cameras, including a 4K-capable video doorbell, plus a new AI-powered feature that uses Ring cameras to help find missing dogs.
Then, on Wednesday, Google announced a huge overhaul of its smart home efforts. The headline is that it’s finally bringing its Gemini AI fully into Google Home with Gemini for Home, a new, smarter LLM-powered voice assistant for Google Home speakers that replaces Google Assistant.
Google launched new Gemini-capable Nest security cameras and a new video doorbell, plus a line of low-cost cameras in partnership with Walmart. It also announced a new Google Home smart speaker, which is coming next year.
This new breed of smarter AI is finally coming to the smart home. I know you have questions, and I hope I have the answers!
