Google’s smart displays are now officially part of the Nest family of smart home products. The company has unveiled the Nest Home Hub Max with a 10 inch display, which is coming this summer for $229. And the original 7 inch Google Home Hub is getting a price cut and a new name: The Nest Hub now sells for $129.
In addition to featuring a bigger screen, the Nest Hub Max has a camera for Google Duo calling and other features.
Hub Max can use the camera to do on-device Face Match recognition so it knows who’s using it, as well as Voice Match. That way recommendations for music, news, and other items can be personalized.
Creeped out yet? Google knows that you might not want an always-listening, always-watching device in your home. So in addition to a green light that should only glow when the camera is functioning, there’s also a physical kill switch on the back of Hub Max.
Flip the switch and the camera and microphones are electronically disconnected so they can’t record anything.
Or you could just get a Nest Hub — Google is lowering the price from $149 to $129, and it doesn’t have a camera.
Google Hub Max has a woofer for louder audio. And since it has a camera, you can raise your hand to pause media playback if, for example, you need to answer the phone.
Kudos for the electrical kill switch and green light. I still like to use my phone and manually turn on voice commands. I can do it pretty quickly now.