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Google has discontinued the Home Mini, finally. Launched back in October 2017, the mini smart speaker has been going strong for the past four years. But it is now out of stock on the Google Store. According to a 9to5Google report, the store marked the Home Mini as “no longer available” on Monday. The product landing page now redirects you to the Nest Mini, its successor that Google launched in 2019. The Home Max, which launched alongside the Home Mini in late 2017, was discontinued in December last year.
Google Home Mini is no longer available on the Google Store
For the past two years, the Home Mini and Nest Mini were mostly priced identically. As of last month, the two devices were selling for $24.99. The availability of color variants varied though. Google sold the two smart speakers in four colors over time: Chalk, Charcoal, Coral, and Aqua.
Anyways, despite the identical price tag, the Nest Mini offers some additional features over its predecessor. It comes with a machine learning chip for faster, local processing of some frequently-used commands. The device featured an ultrasonic sensor that would light up the touch controls when you get close to the speaker. It also offered a stronger bass and included a third far-field microphone. It supports wall mounting as well.
All in all, the Nest Mini is significantly superior to the Home Mini though it doesn’t cost more. However, Google continued to sell the latter alongside the second-gen model all this while. Perhaps the company continued to find buyers for it. The Home Mini using a micro USB port for power may have made some people pick it over the newer model, which features a barrel plug connector. Or maybe Google had made too many units of the device and it took the company more than four years to clear up the inventory.
Nonetheless, the time has now come for the Home Mini to bid adieu. The device is no longer available to buy on the Google Store as well as third-party retailers such as Best Buy and Target. You may still find a few units on the shelves of some brick and mortar stores, but it’s more or less dead now. We don’t expect it to return in stock as Google now redirects you to the Nest Mini. But if you own a Home Mini, you may still receive software updates and security fixes for some time.