Google Assistant Is Shutting Down. Here's What Smart Home Owners Actually Need to Do.

Google is killing Google Assistant. Not rebranding it, not "evolving" it. Killing it. On March 26, 2026, the smart home features that millions of people rely on daily will stop working. Your voice commands, your routines, your automations. Gone.

If you have a Google Home speaker controlling your lights, thermostat, or morning routine, you have about five weeks to figure out a plan. This article is that plan.

What's actually happening

Google announced that Google Assistant will be fully deprecated in favor of Gemini, their AI assistant. Sounds like a simple upgrade, right? It's not.

Gemini is built for conversations, web search, and creative tasks. It was never designed to control smart home devices. Google has been bolting on smart home support as an afterthought, and the results speak for themselves.

"I asked Gemini to turn off the living room lights and it started explaining the physics of LED bulbs." r/googlehome, 579 upvotes

The community consensus is brutal. Users describe Gemini's smart home control as a "frustration generator." Commands that worked instantly with Google Assistant now fail, misinterpret, or trigger unrelated responses. Routines that took one second now take three attempts.

The full timeline

What devices are affected

If you use Google Home or Google Nest to control anything, you're affected. But the impact varies:

Devices that will lose voice control entirely

• Any device connected only through Google Home (no native app or protocol)
• Google Home routines and automations
• Broadcast messages between speakers
• Complex multi-step voice commands

Devices that will partially work through Gemini

• Basic on/off commands for popular brands (Philips Hue, Nest Thermostat)
• Simple timer and alarm functions
• Single-device commands (but not room groups reliably)

Devices that work independently

• Anything with its own app (Hue, IKEA, etc.) still works through that app
• Zigbee and Z-Wave devices work with any compatible hub
• Matter-compatible devices work with any Matter controller

Why "just use Gemini" isn't the answer

Google's official recommendation is to transition to Gemini. Here's why that's not a real solution for smart home users:

• Reliability dropped. Google Assistant had near-instant command execution. Gemini processes commands through an LLM, adding latency and misinterpretation.
• Routines are broken. Multi-step routines ("Good morning" turning on lights, starting coffee, playing news) don't work the same way in Gemini.
• Still cloud-dependent. Your internet goes down, your lights don't work. That's the same fundamental problem.
• Privacy concerns remain. Every command still goes through Google's servers. Every voice recording still gets processed in the cloud.
• It could happen again. Google has a well-documented history of killing products (Google Reader, Google+, Hangouts, Stadia, 293 others). Gemini could be next.

The r/smarthome community summed it up well: the top sentiment in 2026 trend discussions is "implementation is still too hard" combined with an "internal battle of whether frustration is worth the outcome." People want to leave, they just need help doing it.

Your real options

Let's be honest about what's on the table:

The Home Assistant path

Home Assistant is the obvious answer. It's free, it's local, it's private, and it supports basically everything. There's a reason it has over 1 million active installations.

But here's the catch everyone glosses over: the learning curve is real.

"I really like the idea of Home Assistant but I do not have the time to learn all the details to set it up. Is there anybody who I could pay so they set it up?" Home Assistant Community Forum (multiple similar threads)

Home Assistant is powerful because it's flexible. But that flexibility means choices at every step. Which hardware to buy. Which integrations to install. How to configure each device. How to recreate your automations. How to set up voice control.

For a typical Google Home setup with 15 to 25 devices, you're looking at:

• Research time: 4 to 8 hours reading docs, forums, YouTube tutorials
• Hardware selection: 1 to 2 hours figuring out what to buy
• Initial setup: 2 to 4 hours installing and configuring Home Assistant
• Device migration: 30 to 60 minutes per device (connecting, testing, configuring)
• Automation recreation: 2 to 6 hours rebuilding routines in HA's automation system

That's a weekend project. More realistically, it's two or three weekends of frustration, forum searches, and trial and error.

Unless someone tells you exactly what to do for your specific devices.

How to actually migrate (without the headache)

Here's our recommended approach, whether you do it yourself or use HomeShift:

Step 1: Know what you have

Make a list of every smart device in your home. Every light bulb, every plug, every sensor, every speaker. Check which protocol each uses (WiFi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, or a proprietary hub).

Or just run the free scan. It takes 3 minutes and does this for you.

Step 2: Check compatibility

Not every device works directly with Home Assistant. Some need a Zigbee coordinator (like a Sonoff Zigbee dongle, about 20 EUR). Some need a specific integration installed. Some should be replaced entirely because they're cloud-only with no local control.

Step 3: Get the right hardware

You need something to run Home Assistant on. The simplest option is a Home Assistant Green (about 99 EUR), a purpose-built mini computer. If you have a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 lying around, that works too.

If you have Zigbee devices (IKEA Tradfri, Aqara sensors, some Hue bulbs), you also need a Zigbee coordinator. The Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus (about 20 EUR) is the community favorite.

Step 4: Install and configure

Install Home Assistant OS on your hardware. Add your devices one at a time. Test each one. Set up your dashboard. Recreate your routines as Home Assistant automations.

This is where most people get stuck. The official docs are good but generic. Forum advice is scattered across thousands of threads. YouTube tutorials cover specific scenarios that may not match yours.

Step 5: Cut over

Once everything works in Home Assistant, disconnect from Google Home. You can keep your Nest speakers as Bluetooth speakers or repurpose them with local casting.

What this costs

The bare minimum to get on Home Assistant:

• Home Assistant Green: ~99 EUR (or use existing Pi/mini PC)
• Zigbee coordinator: ~20 EUR (only if you have Zigbee devices)
• Replacement devices: Varies. Most devices work. The ones that don't are usually cheap cloud-only plugs or sensors with 15 EUR alternatives.
• Home Assistant software: Free, forever.

Total hardware cost for most people: 100 to 150 EUR. That's a one-time purchase with no monthly fees. Compare that to Alexa+ subscriptions or buying into Apple's ecosystem.

The real cost is time. DIY migration takes 15 to 30 hours for a typical smart home. A HomeShift migration report cuts that to 3 to 5 hours by telling you exactly what to do for each device, skipping the research phase entirely.