Google announces its new $99 smart speaker, Nest Audio

It only took four years, but Google has finally released a successor to the Google Home smart speaker. At its hardware event on Wednesday, the company announced the all-new Nest Audio for $99.

The smart speaker comes equipped with a 19mm tweeter and 75mm mid-woofer, which is supposed to give you a fuller and more natural sound. In comparison to the original Google Home, Google claims it delivers 50 percent more bass and 75 percent more volume.

Google's Media EQ feature, first introduced in the Google Home Max, is also included in the new Nest Audio. Essentially, it measures the acoustics of the space where the smart speaker is placed and adjusts the audio accordingly. That's in addition to Ambient IQ, which adjusts the volume of the content you're listening to (as well as Google Assistant), depending on the background noise in the room.

The Nest Audio is compatible with Google's other smart speakers: Google Home, Nest Mini, and Nest Hub. That way, you can connect them together to play the same audio on each one simultaneously or transfer it from speaker to speaker if you're going from one room to the other.

Google Assistant now responds twice as fast on the new Nest Audio as compared to the original Google Home, thanks to the machine learning chip embedded inside of it. That chip is the same as the one featured in last year's Nest Mini, and all of the machine learning runs locally on the device.

The smart speaker also comes with a series of touch controls on its side, including the ability to lower the volume simply by tapping on it. As with Google's other smart speakers, there is also a switch to turn the microphone on and off.

The Nest Audio will be available for purchase on October 5 and comes in a variety of colors: chalk, charcoal, sand, sage, and sky.