The second-generation Google Nest Hub smart display is one year old, so it’s time to wonder if a new version of the hardware is just around the corner. 9to5Google has a new rumor to consider: Google is “working on a new Nest Hub for 2022 with a docking tablet form factor where the screen detaches from the base/speaker.”The site didn’t give details, but the idea was in line with Google’s recent product roadmap.
Since its inception, the Google Assistant hardware has essentially copied Amazon’s Echo line. The original Google Home speaker was released two years after the Amazon Echo. Home Mini came out a year and a half after Echo Dot. The Google Home Hub smart display hit the market a year after the Echo Show. The Google Assistant smartwatch was launched a year and a half after the Echo Spot. Google’s lack of hardware innovation isn’t a big deal as Google is generally considered to have the best voice command system, but it’s pretty clear where Google is going shopping in terms of product development.
And of course, Amazon has a whole line of tablets that turn into smart displays. In 2018, the company built smart displays into Fire OS, Amazon’s fork of Android. Whenever you insert an Amazon tablet into one of the official docking stations, it will automatically enter smart display mode. Google has been experimenting with “environment mode”. for Android phones a year and a half after Amazon’s launch (Google’s time is surprisingly stable), but initially the feature was only available on certain third-party phones. Ambient Mode didn’t make it onto devices like the Pixel 6. The feature also doesn’t make much sense on phones, which tend not to read across the room. Smart displays are usually there. Tablet environment mode would be better,
This will run Android, right?
What OS will run on such a device? One can only guess. Google’s smart display lineup is currently supported by a large number of operating systems. In 2018, the original Google Assistant smart display for partner devices ran Android Things, a stripped down Android-based single-app kiosk operating system. Google decided not to use the Android Things OS for the first and second generation Nest Hubs, but instead used an enhanced Chromecast OS. In 2021, after the launch of the second generation display, Google moved its third Fuchsia operating system into development on the first generation Nest Hub.
Android Things was shut down in 2020, so it’s probably gone. The Cast platform has always been an odd stepchild in Google’s OS lineup. While the cheap $30 Chromecast still runs on it and needs a super-simple OS, the higher-end model is now called “Chromecast with Google TV”and runs Android TV. However, Google added more features to the Cast OS, the latest being the app drawer user interface. Google has some third parties involved such as Spotify and Netflix, but Cast OS does not have a full app platform and these “apps”are basically shortcuts to web pages.
We’d be more comfortable calling Fuchsia the future of the Nest Hub line if Google pushed the OS to a second-gen smart display, but it never did, so Fuchsia looks like an experiment relegated to the first-gen line. The Fushia operating system on the first generation hub never received the improvements that the second generation hub received (such as the app drawer), so this OS does not seem like the future of the smart display line.
Android 13 has an improved screen saver mode with “complications,”widgets that display information such as weather, air quality, date, and time. Presumably these complications will show up when you dock your tablet, which will make Android 13 work like a Fire OS tablet. You’ll still need to add a lot of stuff to Android, like big buttons for smart home and media controls, but Android can handle that. The entire Google smart display UI was originally an Android app that ran on Android Things, and now you can just run something like this on full Android.
Google has been pushing for tablets lately, and the release of Android 12L is the most important sign that the company is once again taking care of big screen devices. We wondered when Google’s hardware would be available to support this software push, and smart display/tablet hybrids could be part of the answer.