Corey Gaskin
The smart display of Google’s second-generation Nest Hub is a year old, so it’s time to wonder if a new hardware release is on the way. 9to5Google has a new rumor to consider: Google is working on a new Nest Hub for 2022 with a dockable tablet form factor where the screen detaches from a base/speaker. The site gave no further details, but the idea would fit into Google’s recent product plan.
Since its inception, Google Assistant hardware has essentially copied Amazon’s Echo line. The original Google Home speaker released two years after the Amazon Echo. The Home Mini came out a year and a half after the Echo Dot. The Google Home Hub smart display hit the market a year after the Echo Show. Google Assistant smart clocks launched a year and a half after the Echo Spot. Google’s lack of hardware innovation isn’t a big deal considering Google is generally considered a better voice command system, but it’s pretty clear where Google is going to shop for a product roadmap.
And of course Amazon has a whole range of tablets that turn into smart displays. In 2018, the company built smart display functionality into Fire OS, Amazon’s fork of Android. Whenever you insert an Amazon tablet into one of the official docks, it will automatically go into smart display mode. Google experimented a year and a half after Amazon launched an “environmental mode” for Android phones (Google’s timing is remarkably consistent), but the feature was initially only available on specific third-party phones. Ambient mode didn’t make it to devices like the Pixel 6. The feature also makes little sense on phones, which are generally not readable from across the room. Smart displays usually are. A tablet ambient mode would have been better, but Google’s 2019 launch was during a dead period for Android tablets.
This will run Android, right?
What operating system would such a device run? It’s a gamble. Currently, the Google smart display line is supported by a plethora of operating systems. In 2018, Android Things ran on the original Google Assistant smart display for partner devices, a stripped-down single-app kiosk operating system based on Android. Google decided not to use the Android Things operating system for the first and second-generation Nest Hub and instead use a souped-up Chromecast operating system. In 2021, after the launch of the second-generation display, Google pushed its third operating system, Fuchsia, in development to the first-generation Nest Hub.
Android Things was discontinued in 2020, so that’s probably out. The Cast platform has always been a weird stepchild in the Google OS lineup. While the cheap $30 Chromecast still runs on it and needs a super simple operating system, the more expensive model is now the “Chromecast with Google TV” and runs Android TV. However, Google has added more features to the Cast OS, the latest being an app user interface. Google has some participating third parties like Spotify and Netflix, but the Cast OS does not have a full app platform and these “apps” are mainly shortcuts to web pages.
We’d rather call Fuchsia the future of the Nest Hub line if Google pushed the OS to the second-generation smart display, but it never did, so Fuchsia looks like an experiment relegated to the line of the first generation. The Fushia OS on the first-generation hub never got the improvements that the second-gen hub received (like the app drawer), so the OS doesn’t seem to be the future of the smart display line.
However, if you want this smart display to be a handy handheld device, you’ll want a regular Android tablet. Android is not a perfect tablet operating system, but if you have to pick something from the Google toolbox, Android is the most suitable. It has a full OS interface and millions of easy-to-install apps that cover most things you want from a tablet. What Android doesn’t have is a smart display interface, but with Android 13, Google is working to change that.
Android 13 has an improved screen saver mode with “complications”, widgets that show information such as the weather, air quality, date and time. Presumably, these complications would occur when you dock the tablet, making Android 13 work like a Fire OS tablet. There are still a lot of things to add to Android, like big buttons for smart home controls and media, but Android could handle those. The whole Google Smart Display UI was originally an Android app that ran on Android Things, and now you can easily run something similar on full-fledged Android.
Google has been pushing for tablets lately, with the release of Android 12L showing the main sign that the company cares about large-screen devices again. We’ve been wondering when the Google hardware will arrive to back up this software push, and smart hybrid screens/tablets could be part of the answer.
