Google’s Nest Home Mini surfaces at the FCC and confirms its existence

It’s not even been a month since the original leaks and rumors about Google’s new Nest Home Mini began surfacing. In late August, we reported on a new, upcoming addition to Google’s smart speaker lineup upon hearing about it from a trusted source over at 9to5 Google. Though we had little reason to doubt this source’s intel, we now have firm confirmation that the Nest Home Mini is in fact a real item and we fully anticipate it showing up at Google’s fall hardware event slated for October 15.

Based on this FCC filing unearthed by 9to5 Google, it is quite easy to make a handful of basic assumptions about the upcoming smart speaker. If the bottom of the device pictured above isn’t enough to clarify things, the model number should help. Listed as H2C, it lines up very well with previous Google Home devices before it like H0A, H0B, H1A, and H2AH.

As for a few things we can glean from the FCC image, we first have a clear cutout for a mount. Whether or not this means we’ll see Google create a mount themselves or not is unclear. I, for one, like the idea of being able to simply put a screw or nail in the wall and have the device mounted with very little fuss.

Another interesting tidbit is the setup code listed on the bottom of the Nest Home Mini. It is a code similar to Nest products that precede the Home Mini, but we’ve not seen these setup codes on Google Home devices prior to this point. While this isn’t shocking or surprising, it is a departure from the original Home Mini that bore no Nest branding and hopefully will supply an even easier way to get things set up and running.

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From this FCC filing and a tweet by @evleaks earlier today (private tweet, but pictured above), it is quite clear that the new Nest Home Mini won’t vary much in appearance to the existing Home Mini, and I think that is a great thing. There’s nothing wrong with the look and feel of the original, and keeping things close in size and shape should allow users to upgrade without having to rethink their physical setups. Whether mounted on a wall or sitting on a desk, a device with similar proportions should help make adoption of the new Home Mini a much simpler decision if things like better speakers and auxiliary input are in fact on board when it launches.