Gemini App Gets support for Google Broadcasts

Abner Li reports today for 9to5 Google the Gemini app is gaining the ability to broadcast voice messages to Nest speakers and smart displays integrated with Google Home.

Li notes the aptly-named Broadcasts feature was previewed by Google last month and, perhaps most notably, comes ahead of Gemini supplanting Google Assistant on Android devices. The change will happen sometime “later this year,” according to Li.

Broadcasts can be sent to specific devices or rooms, or to the entire household.

While certainly a feature of convenience—nobody wants to run around their house telling the family dinner is ready, Paul Revere-style—the reality is, as ever, Broadcasts can prove beneficial for accessibility too. Especially for those with limited mobility, or someone who’s immobile altogether, trying to share a message (or get assistance) can be arduous if people are spread across other parts of the house. For example, someone might need to alert their caregiver, who may be in the kitchen, they need to bring their medications to take along with their food. Likewise, someone in a wheelchair may not be able to move about to every part of the house to tell everyone a meal is ready, so Broadcasts makes relaying the message a more accessible task. Google positions Broadcasts as an amenity that makes life easier and nicer when, in truth, the feature has serious applicability as a lifesaving de-facto accessibility feature for many people.

Google’s Broadcasts is similar to Apple’s Intercom on HomePods. Apple’s implementation is effectively identical, catered towards HomePod and HomePod mini, but comes with an additional perk: Intercom can transcribe messages. They will show up on people’s iPhone or Apple Watch, for instance, and is a cool but useful feature for those in mixed households where, say, hearing and Deaf people cohabitate. That Intercom offers transcripts makes the feature more inclusionary when it ostensibly would be exclusionary, much like how—as I’ve proffered often lately—Music Haptics and transcripts breaks barriers for music and podcast listening in the Apple ecosystem.