- Google One subscription (2 TB) is losing two important functions in the United Kingdom
- Subscribers will soon have to pay Google Home Premium separately
- Fitbit Premium will also disappear from the subscription on October 1, 2026
Google Home is receiving a great update driven by Gemini, but that change will not occur without some casualties and price increases.
The first Gemini for Home evaluators (those who registered for early access) are now obtaining the new functions, but Google has given me a little worse news. As a subscriber of Google One in the United Kingdom, I currently get Google Home Premium and Fitbit Premium as part of my subscription, but not for a long time.
In an email sent to me and other subscribers of Google One (below), Google says that “these benefits will no longer be offered with their premium plan from October 1, 2026”. This means that to maintain the existing benefits for my Nest Cam (much less obtain all the benefits of Gemini soon), I will soon need to update a much more expensive Google Ai Pro plan.
To convince me and others in the United Kingdom that we put aside our gallows, Google has offered us an agreement ai pro at a reduced price for next year. We can obtain a 50 % discount over the next 12 months, which will reduce its price of £ 18.99 per month (currently costs $ 19.99 / au $ 32.99 per month in the USA and Australia) to £ 9.49 per month.
Unfortunately, that remains considerably more than my current £ 79.99 a year (which is equivalent to £ 6.67 per month). And after that first year with a discount, the subscription will be almost three times what I currently pay.
As someone who recently initiated a subscription to YouTube Premium, that is difficult to accept (and, frankly, justify). As I live in the United Kingdom, I will not obtain any gemini for home until early 2026.
The drop that fills the vessel for the smart home
As my colleague Lance Ulanoff (General Techradar Editor) wrote recently, technological subscriptions are becoming a big problem. I am quite tired of them, but it is particularly bad in the smart house.
Buying intelligent home technology in the last decade has been like playing a constant bait and change game, followed by the pain of price speculation. Most of the intelligent domestic devices that I have had (from Tado to Canary and more) have changed to a subscription policy that did not exist from the beginning.
I have no problem with subscriptions that provide additional value, but should not be used to delimit basic functionality. My Nest Cam, for example, is practically useless without a subscription because you only get the last three hours of recordings in your event history.
Combine this with the fact that Google will not launch its new Nest Doorbell in the United Kingdom, and is even restricting the fun colors of its Home Speaker incoming to the US. UU., And I am beginning to feel like a very unpleasant guest in Google’s smart house.
In fact, I could well retire from Google hardware in general, given its tendency to abruptly throw projects to the Google cemetery every time it is distracted with the next brilliant innovation.
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