Google Home acknowledges and addresses user concerns regarding malfunctions - learn their official responses
Google has admitted to significant reliability issues with the Google Assistant on Home and Nest smart home devices, causing frequent failures in command recognition and execution. These problems have been a source of frustration for users since early 2025.
In response, Anish Kattukaran, the Chief Product Officer for Google Home and Nest, has publicly apologized to users and promised major long-term improvements focused on better reliability and capabilities. These fixes are actively being developed and are expected to roll out in the fall/autumn of 2025.
Some of the issues users have encountered include misunderstanding commands, delayed responses, and ignoring questions. One user reported that after asking Google to turn off their fan, it turned off their lights instead. Another user reported asking one speaker to play music and it started doing so in a different room on a different speaker.
Kattukaran stated that Google is committed to providing a long-term solution that improves reliability and capability. He also mentioned that more details will be shared in the fall.
While Google has recently issued updates to some Nest hardware, such as the Nest Wifi Pro, these updates do not fully address the Assistant reliability issues. The main remedy for these problems lies in forthcoming software and firmware improvements tied to the Google Assistant itself, likely involving enhancements connected to the Gemini Assistant platform transition.
For users who have built a smart home ecosystem on Google Home or Nest devices, there is a possibility that older hardware may be phased out, which could potentially be problematic. However, no concrete details have been provided regarding this matter.
There is also speculation that Google may be producing new smart home gadgets, but no official announcements have been made on this front.
In summary, Google has acknowledged the recent reliability issues with the Google Assistant on Home and Nest devices and is working on major improvements. Users can expect these improvements later this year once Google deploys the planned updates. More details will be shared in the fall.
- In an effort to enhance the performance of smart-home devices, Anish Kattukaran, the Chief Product Officer for Google Home and Nest, announced that significant long-term improvements are underway, focusing on improving reliability and expanding capabilities.
- Amidst the seeming development of new smart-home gadgets, users currently invested in a smart-home ecosystem built on Google Home or Nest devices might face potential issues as older hardware could be phased out, a detail yet to be concretely confirmed by Google.
