Google doubles down on far-field microphones in the living room

Google is doubling down on voice control for TV: At CES, the company is announcing what it calls a “Gemini Enhanced Google Assistant” – basically a souped-up version of ambient computing that goes beyond simple voice commands and allows for more conversational interactions. Gemini is supposed to help with smart home control, road trip planning, and tap into Google Photos to revisit a past family trip, among other things.

60 percent of Google TV owners are already using voice commands and queries, according to Google TV VP and GM Shalini Govil-Pai, who acknowledged in a conversation ahead of CES that Google Assistant interactions were somewhat limited.

Bringing Gemini to the TV, and shipping more TVs and streaming devices with built-in far-field microphones, is supposed to change that. “You can actually have natural conversations, whether the TV is on or off,” Govil-Pai said. “It is going to be 100x better than what it is today.”

As part of that voice push, Google is apparently also considering adding far-field microphones to its own streaming devices. “That's definitely in the plans,” Govil-Pai said after I asked her about adding such microphones to Google TV hardware. “Ideally, we would have launched it already, but yes, we’re working on that.”

A Google spokesperson walked back her statements following the publication of this story, suggesting Govil-Pai “may have misspoke while referring to the possibilities we are discussing with our teams,” adding: “We can confirm there are no current plans to add them.”

Get all the smart TV, streaming, and entertainment AI news you need sent straight to your inbox every Thursday.

As part of that push to bring AI to the TV, Google is also working with TV manufacturers to add proximity sensors to select 2025 TV sets. These will help turn the TV into a supersized smart display that responds to people in the room. “If you walk in and walk closer to your TV, [it] transitions from the ambient screensaver into a helpful display with information like your weather, your morning commute, your top news stories,” Govil-Pai said. The fist companies to add proximity sensors to some of their TV sets will be Hisense and TCL.

While proximity sensors will initially be limited to a few higher-end models, Google plans to quickly expand its AI push to other devices. This includes bringing the Gemini Enhanced Google Assistant to existing Google TV devices later in 2025.

This article was published by Lowpass, a weekly newsletter about AR, VR, streaming and more. Sign up now for free.

Update: This post was updated with information about Google’s launch partners for proximity sensing in the living room, and further updated after a Google spokesperson disputed plans to add microphones to first-paty hardware.