Tewke, the British smart home company, has teamed up with Google to bring AI powered by Gemini to its clever touchscreen light switch, called Tap.
You might recognise Tewke from a recent episode of Grand Designs, where company co-founder Piers Daniell set about building a multi-million-pound, modern-day castle. The episode briefly showed off his company’s Tap light switch replacement, and now Tewke has announced integration with Google.
Called TewkeAI, the system will come to Tap in the first half of 2026, the company says. It’s a voice assistant powered by Google Gemini that will allow users to ask questions and issue voice commands to control their smart home. Functions announced so far include weather forecasts, news headlines and answers to general knowledge queries – much like what’s possible with smart speakers.
The news comes soon after Google said Gemini would also roll out to Nest smart home devices.
The difference between a smart speaker, like an Amazon Echo or Apple HomePod, is that the Tewke Tap is primarily a light switch and smart home controller, rather than a portable speaker. It’s designed to be installed in place of a standard wall switch, and uses the same wiring for constant power. There’s also no always-listening system, as with smart speakers that always listen out for commands like “Alexa” and “Hey Google”. Instead, TewkeAI only starts listening when you swipe at the OLED display and hold an on-screen icon.
Existing features of the Tap include real-time energy usage information and home health reports – including air quality, temperature and humidity – and light switch control. Like other smart lighting systems, Tap can also be controlled via a smartphone app, and pre-sets can be configured. It’s an approach that differs from the likes of Philips Hue, since Tewke is selling a smart switch for controlling your existing bulbs, instead of a new set of smart, colour-changing bulbs.
The Tap system also works with compatible smart plugs for controlling lamps and other mains-powered devices.
Instead of offering a huge range of features, Tewke is majoring in simplicity. Co-founder Rowan Dixon said: “As Tap is a device created for everyone in the home, we have designed our first version of TewkeAI to be as intuitive to use as possible.”
CEO Piers Daniell said: “TewkeAI is the next step in us bringing the future of home automation and energy saving to homes, to enable our vision of creating the future of a smart grid.”
