Gemini’s been Google’s top priority for more than a year now — the company’s publicly said it’s in its “Gemini era” a bunch of times. In 2025, Google’s doubling down on that commitment. At CES, TCL showed off Gemini integration coming to Google TV — and elsewhere, we’ve seen evidence Google’s readying its AI assistant to make the jump to smart speakers and smartwatches. Gemini will be a prominent fixture in upcoming Android XR headsets, and Mercedes is set to roll Google’s Gemini-powered Automotive AI Agent to some of its vehicles this year. It’s looking like another big year for Google’s AI assistant.
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Watches, headsets, cars, and more
Gemini’s long overdue to replace Google Assistant on Nest speakers and Wear OS — at least optionally. Now that Gemini can do the vast majority of what Assistant can (set alarms, control smart home devices, tell you the weather, et cetera) and then some, the experience of having your phone respond to “Hey Google” completely differently than your watch or smart speaker is clunky and, for less engaged users, can be frustrating.
We saw the first signs that Gemini was making its way to smart speakers in December, when several users in the UK noticed their Nest speakers replying to certain prompts in a new, more realistic-sounding voice. Since then, we haven’t seen much motion on the smart speaker front — but given the other advances Gemini is making this year, I’d be surprised if it didn’t make its way to Nest speakers in full sometime in 2025. Google’s newest smart speaker, the Nest Audio, is going on five years old, so we could feasibly even get new hardware this year, tied to a Gemini announcement (though we haven’t heard anything about that yet).
Gemini’s spread to other form factors is looking more concrete. Code spotted in the beta version of the Google app last week refers to Gemini as a “wearable” assistant, and even says you’ll be able to “Easily talk back and forth to get more done with an assistant on your watch, reimagined with Google AI,” hinting at Gemini Live-like functionality.
It’s outright confirmed that Gemini capabilities are coming to Google TV later this year, starting with upcoming TCL sets. In a demo at CES, TCL stressed that the experience on TVs wouldn’t be Gemini proper, but rather a version of the Google Assistant with Gemini integration that allows for new functionality.
The distinction seems a little convoluted, but the Gemini-enhanced Assistant experience will let you have a conversational back-and-forth about shows or movies — a presenter pulled up Jurassic World by voice, then asked for similar content that’s more appropriate for young kids, and Google TV suggested The Land Before Time. You can also ask nuanced questions that Google TV will answer both in natural language and with a selection of relevant YouTube videos from authoritative sources.
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Android Auto code indicated that Google’s prepping support for Gemini Live integration for its automotive software as far back as September. Less straightforward, but still noteworthy: Google announced this week that Mercedes-Benz’s new MBUX in-car assistant uses Google’s Automotive AI Agent, itself built in part on Gemini.
Gemini will play a key role in Google’s mixed-reality platform, Android XR, which is set to debut in a Samsung-built headset currently known as Project Moohan sometime this year. In headsets and smart glasses, you’ll be able to ask Gemini questions about the world around you, much like we saw in Google’s impressive Project Astra demo last year. It’s a distinctly futuristic concept — and I’m really curious to see how well it works in real life.
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All Gemini, all the time
Google’s aggressive Gemini expansion isn’t only about new device types. The AI assistant has been available on a wide range of phones for some time (including iPhones, as of November), but we’ve seen evidence that Samsung intends to integrate Gemini more deeply into its devices soon.
In just a few days, at Galaxy Unpacked, we’re expecting a number of Gemini-themed announcements alongside the reveal of the Galaxy S25 series. Gemini is getting new integrations for Samsung apps that’ll let users take notes, create calendar events, and more inside Samsung’s stock apps, all by way of Gemini. Samsung offers its own suite of AI functionality in Galaxy AI; it’ll be interesting to see how the company spins
Gemini may even get its own wake word soon. Leaked promo materials highlighting the S25’s Gemini integrations suggest you might be able to say “Hey Gemini” to call up Google’s AI assistant on Samsung’s upcoming devices.
Throughout 2024, Google made it a priority to inject Gemini-based functionality into tons of software products: Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Messages — the list goes on. In 2025, it looks like the company is taking a similar approach to getting Gemini up and running on new hardware. Like it or not, Gemini’s going to be everywhere this year.
