My Google Assistant Has Developed a Sudden Stubborn Streak. I’m Not Alone.

“Hey Google, stop the timer.” Silence. Deafening, violent silence as the timer continues counting down. “Hey Google, stop the timer.” It keeps going until it reaches zero, and then it blares its damn head off.

That’s been me each morning for most of December and these few bits of January as I stand in the kitchen, making pour-over coffee. Minor issue, but minorly annoying because I can barely rub two brain cells together in that horrid time between waking up and downing my first mug of coffee.

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For me, the issue was slight and barely worth complaining about. Just the timer acting up. When I read that others in late December began posting complaint after complaint after complaint that they, too, were experiencing the problem, and to a more severe degree, it perked up my attention.

People would ask core questions, such as “What’s the weather?” and “What’s the time,” and their Google Nest Hubs and Nest Audio smart speakers would just think absent-mindedly and then say nothing.

a minor headache

“Hey Google, cancel the timer,” I tried, swapping out the word “stop” that came more naturally, the one I’d been using for years.

“No problem. Consider the timer canceled,” says Google Assistant in her Australian-tinged English, as she’s been for me since day one. (Didn’t know you could change Google Assistant’s accent? It’s easy.) Why it took me days to try the slightly different, slightly less natural phrasing I can only blame on the caffeine-depleted lump of wet tissue that masquerades as a brain five minutes after waking up. But the change in wording works.

But why did the former stop working all of a sudden after four years? It doesn’t even respond. I don’t get a “I don’t understand” or “I don’t know, but I found these results on search,” like I do when I say “Hey Google, purple monkey dishwasher.” Just silence as Google Assistant struggles to think, and then nothing.

Working through Google’s recommended fixes didn’t pan out for me, though, even though I was just a test bed of one. Check for software updates? It should do that automatically, but I did it myself and it was up to date. Unplug it, leave it for a few minutes, and then plug it back in? No change. Reset my home’s internet connection? No luck. Unlink, delete, and then re-download the Google Home app? Zilch. Hard reset of the Nest Hub? Zip.

is it fixed?

Officially, yes? Maybe? But we’ve yet to see if the range of complaints is followed up by a range of confirmations that the issue is indeed fixed. Android Authority reported yesterday morning that they were able to replicate the issue on Google Nest Hubs, Nest Audios, and partly on a Pixel Tablet, and then received word shortly after midnight on January 3 that a Google representative told them via email that “The team is still investigating the root cause but have resolved the issue, so all users should be up and running now.”

The team at Android Authority then updated their story to say the issue was fixed, and that “We also tested commands on our Nest Hub and Audio devices, and they seem to be working fine now.” At VICE, I gave our Nest Hub a try and its (slight) issues remain.

When 9to5Google reported on the issue, its comments section was populated by people saying they’ve been experiencing the issue, too, just like the comments section of Android Authority. We’re interested to see if over the next day or two, people respond that the issue is fixed for them.