Remove Gemini From Google Home

 Hopefully this provides some hope and direction to those who committed the faux pas of switching to Gemini in Google Home. I did it; I switched to Gemini and in less than five minutes knew it was a mistake.

I checked the Community and found no help. I found depressing recommended answers which I paraphrase, "You're screwed." That may be true to a point, but the answers are incomplete. Three little words are missing from, "...can't switch back to Google Assistant." The three words needed at the end are "in that home."

Those three words point the direction to recovery. THAT home is stuck with Gemini. As of the date of this writing (Jan. 12, 2026), an added home defaults to Google Assistant. Follow along and I'll tell you what I did. There a lots of words here, but it really did not take terribly long to get back to pre-Gemini. Try at your own risk.

What I had to work with was four Nest Mini 2nd Gen speakers scattered about the house, a 5th in the garage and 50+ smart things voice controlled. The only time I have to touch a switch or fan remote or thermostat is if my ISP is down. There were several automations too.

The first thing I needed to do was memorialize my automations. There's nothing better than pen, paper, and maybe a clipboard. Automations can be reviewed in the Automations section of Google Home, but you can also see them on a regular computer screen by logging in at: https://assistant.google.com/settings/routines

After documenting what I needed for my automations, in the home app next to my avatar (picture, graphic, letter) top right of screen I tapped the +. Home is at the bottom of this Add pop-up. I tapped Home. The next screen asked for a name. I typed a few random keyboard letters then Save. I tapped Skip on the address screen and Continue on the pop-up.

I was now in the new home and Devices showed my speakers. I did not touch the speakers here or in the old home until the end. I tapped the avatar and tapped Switch home.

Now I press, not tap, for a second on a light or switch or socket. On the next screen I tap the gear icon, top right, to open the settings. The second or third item under General is Home. I tap the old home name. Next I tap the new home name and then Move. That device and I are in the new home.

At this point it was mostly repeating steps until only my speakers were left. Tap the avatar, switch home, press device, tap settings, tap old home name, tap new name then Move. Moving devices goes fairly quickly once a couple get done.

The last things to move were my speakers. I did those then went back to the old home for the last time. I tapped the avatar, tapped Home settings, scrolled to the bottom and tapped Delete this home. I confirmed the selection deleting the old home.

I rebooted each speaker in the new Home: press on speaker name, tap gear icon, tap three vertical dots, tap reboot and confirm. I closed the Home app and went to my table settings and cleared the cache for the app.

Now I went to Home settings and gave the home a proper name and address. Finishing touches were redoing automations as needed.

The large number of things I have did not need to be moved in one sitting. Gemini retained voice control of devices in both homes until the old was deleted. Then my old Google Assistant was back.

I sometimes use Google Voice to make calls from a Nest Mini. Assistant settings for Communication in the new home only showed Google Meet until the old home was deleted. The Google Voice option appeared once the old home was gone.

JFK