Gemini is getting smarter and a lot less annoying for smart home voice controls

By Vikhyaat Vivek Published March 3, 2026

After listening to users’ feedback, Google is starting to roll out a new round of updates to Gemini for Home. And this time around, the focus is simple: fix what’s been driving people crazy. In a recent tweet, Anish Kattukaran, Chief Product Officer for Gemini for Home, said that the team has been “heads down working on improvements based on your feedback,” with a number of fixes and updates going live across Gemini for Home, the Google Home app, automations, and supported devices.

If you’ve ever said something like “turn off the kitchen” and watched the smart assistant shut down far more than just the lights, you’re not alone. According to the executive, Gemini has improved how it targets smart devices with better isolation, starting with room-based voice commands.

So now, when you say “turn off the kitchen”, Gemini will intelligently target just the lights; rather than turning off every other smart plug or connected devices assigned to that room. This might sound small on paper, but for anyone with smart plugs connected to refrigerators, routers, or always-on appliances, this is a big quality-of-life change.

Another major improvement is how Gemini handles unassigned or loosely categorized devices. In the past, devices that weren’t clearly assigned to a specific room could get lumped into broad requests, leading to unexpected behavior. So a general command could be interpreted differently, causing actions to affect gadgets unintentionally.

With this update:

The essence of the change is that Gemini is becoming better at understanding the user’s intent. While room-level targeting is the headline feature, Kattukaran also hinted at broader updates rollingout across Gemini for Home, the Google Home app, smart home automations, and some other supported devices.