Google Discontinues Nest Mini and Nest Audio Speakers

Google has officially ended production of two of its longest-running smart speakers, the Nest Mini and the Nest Audio, closing the book on the Nest-branded speaker era as the company pivots to Gemini-powered hardware.

What Google confirmed

Google confirmed the decision to Tech Advisor in June 2026. A spokesperson told the outlet:

“As we continue to build the future of the smart home, we are refining our portfolio of Google Home and Nest devices. As part of this evolution, we have ended production of the Google Nest Mini and Google Nest Audio.”

Both models have since disappeared from the Google Store in the US and UK, though remaining inventory and refurbished units are still circulating through some retailers.

Existing owners are not being cut off

The important distinction for the millions of current owners is that this is a hardware lifecycle change, not a service shutdown. Google said existing Nest Mini and Nest Audio devices “will continue to be fully supported with regular software updates, security patches, and customer care.”

Better still, both speakers are being upgraded to Gemini for Home, the AI assistant that is replacing Google Assistant across the ecosystem. Google has a track record here: even the original 2016 Google Home speaker is still actively supported, and a fresh firmware version (3.79.550760) recently started rolling out to older Home and Nest speakers with audio, Wi-Fi, and smart-home improvements.

Meet the replacement: the $99 Google Home Speaker

The two Nest speakers are being replaced by the new Google Home Speaker, which began shipping in late June 2026 at $99.99 — the same price as the Nest Audio it succeeds. It is Google’s first new smart speaker since 2020, and its first device built around Gemini from the start:

• A 58 mm driver with 360-degree sound, rated at 2.5x stronger bass than the Nest Mini
• Three far-field microphones with a physical mute switch, plus a light ring that shows when Gemini is listening, thinking, or responding
• Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and a Thread 1.3 border router — making it a genuine smart-home hub for Matter devices
• USB-C power through a 30 W adapter, in four colors: Berry, Hazel, Jade, and Porcelain
• Stereo pairing, speaker groups with existing Nest speakers, and pairing with the Google TV Streamer for home theater audio

Google bundled six months of Google Home Premium ($60 value) with early purchases, unlocking Gemini Live for real-time conversational interactions and camera-history search with Nest cams.

Background: the end of a $35 entry point

The Nest Mini launched in 2019 as the affordable entry to Google’s smart home, priced as low as $35 — cheap enough to put voice control in every room. The Nest Audio followed in 2020 as the $99 step-up with noticeably better sound. Both became fixtures in millions of homes and helped Google become the second-largest smart speaker brand: data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners shows about a quarter of US smart speaker owners use Google devices, behind Amazon’s roughly two-thirds.

Google’s own language says it all: it is “refining our portfolio” to “build the future of the smart home.” The future is Gemini — conversational, interruptible, capable of multi-step commands — and that future needs hardware designed for it, with dedicated AI processing the old speakers lack.

The timing also matters competitively. In October 2026, Apple made its biggest smart-home push in years with the $299 HomeView display and a full Home Collection lineup, while Amazon’s Alexa+ rolled out across Echo devices earlier in the year. Google’s speaker refresh is its answer on the hardware side, and its smart displays — the Nest Hub from 2021 and the Nest Hub Max from 2019 — are widely expected to be next in line for an update. Code found in the Google Home app earlier this year references a new “Google Home Display,” though Google has not confirmed anything.

What this means for you

• If you own a Nest Mini or Nest Audio: do nothing. Your speaker keeps working, keeps getting updates, and gains Gemini for Home. If you are selling or giving one away, do a factory reset first — it requires physical button presses, since it cannot be done through the app.
• If you are shopping: the budget option is effectively gone. The cheapest current Google speaker is the $99 Google Home Speaker. Deal-hunters can still find discounted Nest Mini stock at retailers while inventory lasts.
• If you are building out Google Home: the new speaker doubles as a Thread border router, so it strengthens the backbone of a Matter setup — worth considering if you are adding Thread devices.

The Nest name has not disappeared from stores entirely — the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max remain on sale — but for speakers, an era that began with the $49 Home Mini puck in 2017 has come to a quiet end. RIP, Nest Mini and Nest Audio.