Google Home Complaints Spark Official Apology and Promise of Major Fixes

Back when smart speakers were more popular, companies like Amazon and Google led the charge. Google released a bunch of smart speakers like its Google Home series. It also bought Nest, the company behind devices like smart thermostats. However, recently, users have been facing a bunch of issues. Google’s radio silence did not help with that. But there might be light at the end of the tunnel. In a post on X, Google CPO of Home and Nest, Anish Kattukaran, has officially responded to the complaints.

Google responds to Home complaints

According to the post, Kattukaran said, “Hey everyone, I want to acknowledge the recent feedback about Google Assistant reliability on our home devices. I sincerely apologize for what you’re experiencing and feeling!”

He also adds, “We hear you loud and clear and are committed to getting this right — and making sure we have a long term solution that provides better reliability and capability. We have been actively working on major improvements for sometime and will have more to share in the fall.”

For those who are learning about these issues for the first time, basically, users were complaining that their Home and Nest devices were bugging out. It would ignore things like simple commands. It would also go offline at seemingly random points. There were also times the devices were unresponsive. 

Some are speculating that Google is planning to introduce some kind of massive Gemini update. However, we’ll have to wait and see.

Seeking out alternatives

In this Reddit post, other users are recommending that Google Home/Nest users seek out alternatives. Some are pointing towards Amazon’s Alexa series of products. This is worrying because it has been a while since Google refreshed its smart speaker lineup. The last release was in 2021 with the 2nd-generation Nest Hub.

This has led to some users worrying that Google no longer prioritizes its smart home system, which is why a lot of these issues have gone unresolved for so long. Hopefully, that isn’t the case. The company did introduce an update to its Home app back in June. But other than that, nothing particularly new. If you’re a Google Home/Nest user that is encountering any of these issues, fingers crossed that Kattukaran’s response is an indication that fixes are incoming.