Google Is Finally Giving Its Older Nest and Home Speakers a Big Firmware Update

Summary

Google began testing firmware 3.79.550760 for the Google Home, Home Mini, Nest Mini, and Nest Audio speakers. It includes audio and streaming fixes, Wi-Fi setup and connectivity improvements, a smoother Assistant experience, smarter home controls, and better overall stability. It is in Google’s Preview Program now, and a wider rollout is expected in a few weeks.

Why it matters

Many people still have these speakers in their kitchens and bedrooms. This is a free tune-up for hardware that has gone years without much attention.

HTD Says

If you have a Nest Mini gathering dust in a bedroom, this update is a good reason to see whether it still deserves its spot back on your wall. I still have a couple of Google Nest and Home products connected to my smart home (and some sitting in a drawer or box). I appreciate it when companies give older devices a little love to improve stability or usability, or, gasp, even add features.

The updates are currently in the Google Preview Program, which I recently and unfortunately left to try to connect my Google Home to Gemini. Now I need to figure out which feature I really want more. I just checked it and for some reason, even though I’m out of the Preview Program, I cannot enroll. However, I went ahead and signed up for Gemini for Home features (using a different account). Ugh. This will probably just sit there and gather dust.

But if you have a simpler Google Home setup and want the firmware update sooner, I’d sign up for the Preview Program to speed things up.

Source:

9to5Google