What you need to know
- Google is preparing a followup to the Google Home smart speaker.
- The successor will be Nest branded, referred to in filings as simply a "Nest Speaker."
- Images of the upcoming speaker have emerged from a Japanese regulatory authority.
Google is set to launch a successor to the original Google Home speaker for 2020. It'll be Google Nest branded, taking on the company's current connected home branding, and it will come with more powerful speakers than the original.
As per 9to5Google, the device will also pick up a few physical changes from the original Google Home, including:
An all-fabric design, a rubber bottom, and also a physical mute switch instead of a button. There's also a new plug design. Where the original Home had a slick hidden port, this new Nest-branded speaker has a traditional plug that juts out the back.
A picture says a thousand works, and the images revealed by the Japanese regulator give us a better idea of the changes:
It's not clear when the updated Nest speaker will launch, but it will likely make its debut around Google's next hardware event, probably in October with the Google Pixel 4a or 5.
Google has already made a good impression with its first Nest branded speaker, the Nest Mini. Android Central's review of that speaker found it to be a good purchase. A bigger version of that little champion should strike a similar note.