[Bug Report] Google Assistant no longer recognizes Chinese device names like "冷氣" or "電視"

chewpanda — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 08:29:57 GMT

Hi, I’m reporting an issue that recently started affecting Google Assistant’s Chinese voice control functionality via Nest Hub.

【Context】
I’ve been using three Panasonic air conditioners connected to Google Home via the Panasonic Comfort Cloud app. For years, I was able to:
Control each unit by voice in Chinese using their full names (e.g., "關閉房間冷氣" / "Set 客廳冷氣 to 24 degrees")
Use delayed commands like "在30分鐘後關閉冷氣" ("Turn off the AC in 30 minutes")

【What happened】
Around the morning of April [insert date], everything broke suddenly:
Voice commands like “關閉客廳冷氣” or “關掉電視” now result in “The device is not set up yet”, even though tapping the same device from the Google Home app works perfectly.
Renaming the device to something without generic words (e.g., "派大星" or "黑盒子") restores voice control.
Renaming to English (e.g., "AC1") also works, so the issue is clearly tied to how Google Assistant is parsing Chinese device names.
Timer-based voice commands like “關掉派大星三十分鐘後” ("Turn off Patrick in 30 minutes") now return "I don't understand", even though they worked before.

【Diagnosis】
It seems Google Assistant has changed the way it interprets Chinese terms like "冷氣" (AC) and "電視" (TV) — treating them as device types rather than part of a device’s actual name. This causes misidentification or fallback errors.

【Temporary workaround】
Rename devices to something non-generic (e.g., characters, nicknames)
Use English device names
But these are not ideal — especially since they remove natural language capabilities, delay commands, and proper visual/audio feedback from Nest Hub.

【Feature request】
Please restore the original support for:
Chinese-language voice control using natural, descriptive device names
Timer-based commands in Chinese (e.g., “在幾點關掉冷氣” / “30分鐘後關電視”)
This used to work flawlessly, and I believe recent backend changes might have broken it.
Let me know if any logs or examples are helpful — happy to provide more.

Re: [Bug Report] Google Assistant no longer recognizes Chinese device names like "冷氣" or &

GabrielaG — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 21:03:27 GMT

Hi @chewpanda,

Thanks for reaching out to the Google Nest community. I'm sorry to hear the Google Assistant is not recognizing Chinese device names, but there's no need to worry; I'm happy to help you right now.

To attempt resolving the issue, please try the following steps below:

Issue the same voice commands using a different Google Home device, or use the phone's Google Assistant and check if the same issue persists.
Unlink and relink the Panasonic app from the Google Home app.
As a workaround, try creating an automation to perform the same actions while retaining the device's original name.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Best regards,

Gabriela

topic Re: [Bug Report] Google Assistant no longer recognizes Chinese device names like "冷氣" or & in Home Automation

[Bug Report] Google Assistant no longer recognizes Chinese device names like "冷氣" or "電視"

Re: [Bug Report] Google Assistant no longer recognizes Chinese device names like "冷氣" or &