Gemini for Home paywalls key Google AI feature, and users aren't happy

Users who have switched from Google Assistant to Gemini have a lost a pretty important feature on smart home devices, and they aren't happy about it.

As detailed in this Reddit thread, if you're using Gemini on a smart home device such as a smart speaker or display, Continued Conversations no longer work — unless you upgrade to Gemini Home Premium.

That means you can't just keep talking to Gemini via a smart speaker in your home. Instead, you need to utter the "Hey Google" phrase before each inquiry.

The Continued Conversation features is now called Gemini Live, and is only available to Google Home Premium subscribers — a plan that starts at $10 per month. To add insult to injury, this feature was previously free with Google Assistant, and reverting back to the old Google Assistant isn't possible.

This seemed to be one of those rare instances in which it made sense to query Gemini for the purpose of a news article, so I asked it about it.

"No, the traditional "Continued Conversation" feature is currently not available for free users who have switched from Google Assistant to Gemini," it wrote. But the "catch," according to Google's AI, is that "even with the paid version, 'Live' mode on speakers is mostly for chatting and information. It often cannot perform smart home actions (like 'turn off the lights') while in that active chat mode."

Fortunately, as Gemini pointed out, Continued Conversations are still available for free on mobile and on the Gemini web app.

The AI downplayed the importance of the feature, but a lot of folks in that Reddit thread disagree. "So annoyed," said one Redditor. "Stopped working after the gemini update, need to say hey google all the time and its slow too, hate it so far," said another.

PCWorld's Ben Patterson also highlighted the lack of this feature, saying that for him it wasn't a dealbreaker, but it's feeling "like a step backward rather than forward."