- Some Google smart speakers recently stopped responding to questions
- Users reported the problem with a variety of different devices
- Google investigated, and says the issue should now be fixed for most users
If you’ve noticed that your Google Nest smart speaker or hub appears to be ignoring voice commands, you’re not alone – but Google says it has identified the problem, and is rolling out a fix to stop your devices giving you the silent treatment.
The problem was highlighted by, among others, Rita El Khoury of Android Authority, who returned from her Christmas vacation to find that her Google Nest Hub and Google Nest Audio would no longer respond to requests to tell her the weather. She was able to use the speakers to control her smart home devices, but functions like setting timers were hit and miss.
She wasn’t alone, and it seems those two devices weren’t the only products affected. Several other device owners have reported similar problems on the company’s support forums.
“All of my Nest speakers suddenly got dumb; all were working, but as of yesterday, they all freeze up when I [try] to get past ‘Hey Google’.” explained Thom Drewke, who found himself faced with a similar issue. “That is, ‘Hey Google are you there’ gets a response, but ‘What’s the weather’ gets no response. All of my speakers did this at the same time. Bizarre!”
Another person explained that they had nine Google Home speakers – a Google Nest Hub Max display, and a mix of various first-generation devices – and all of them had stopped responding to questions.
“I have a lot of devices connected to Google Home and I can control all of them still, I just can’t ask certain questions,” they wrote. “I have tried rebooting the google home devices, I have tried rebooting the router a dozen times and still nothing.”
Hey Google…
Google was quick to act, and told Android Authority via email that although its team was still investigating the root cause of the problem, it had resolved the problem “so all users should be up and running now”.
That should come as a relief to anyone who’s looking forward to the arrival of Gemini for Google Assistant, which should allow your existing smart speakers to give you more comprehensive answers – but only if they’re willing to talk to you.
