Google’s first smart speaker in six years arrives next week

The Google Home Speaker comes in four colors, including porcelain. (Stroopwafel not included. ) | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Google's first new smart speaker in six years starts shipping on June 25th, narrowly missing its promised spring launch window.

Preorders for the Google Home Speaker open today, June 17th. Nothing has changed hardware-wise in the nine months since the $99 speaker was announced. It has the same slightly squished round design, with touch-capacitive buttons on top and a light ring at the bottom to indicate status.