Google Promises a Smart Home Fix, Apologizes For Assistant Troubles

Google Home’s experience has taken a step backward in recent years. Many users have banded together in the last week to issue complaints about how some of the system's key features have been broken without any clear sign of a fix from Google.

Now, a Google executive working on smart home has acknowledged problems with its Home speakers and other gadgets. He has also confirmed the company is actively working on a fix.

“I want to acknowledge the recent feedback about Google Assistant reliability on our home devices," said Anish Kattukaran, Chief Product officer at Google Home and Nest. "I sincerely apologize for what you're experiencing and feeling!”

“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.”

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This sentiment has been growing over the last few years as Google's attention has moved away from Assistant and over to its Gemini AI. The tipping point for Google to comment appears to come from social media after the company introduced a price hike for its Nest Aware subscription.

Google announced last week that from mid-August a Nest Aware subscription will increase by $2 a month and Nest Aware Plus will jump up $5 a month. That’s the second price hike in the last two years, and some customers are clearly frustrated as they've found the experience of their products has become worse.

A popular Reddit thread from July 21 brings together many examples of how Google's smart home products have more limited functionality now. One reply said, “On the weekend I asked it to play classic vinyl which I’ve been doing mostly without issue on SiriusXM for years. This time it plays a band on Spotify called “classic vinyl” and the song called “AOC.”

Another said, "Mine just stopped responding to voice commands altogether recently and started randomly pinging intermittently." One user even found they wanted to stop using the products saying, “They've gotten so bad I've unplugged them.”

The “major improvements” Kattukaran's comments allude to may include the long anticipated inclusion of Google Gemini on its smart speakers. It has taken the brand a long time to fold the chatbot assistant into its smart home operation, and it’s unclear what has caused that delay.

Google has confirmed its hosting a Pixel event on August 20 where we’ll be introduced to the Pixel 10 series. It’s unlikely we’ll hear about new Google Home improvements at that event though as Kattukaran said it's coming in the fall. Expect to hear more in September or later.