topic Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time in Speakers and Displays

Multiple devices responding at the same time

seknav — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 23:02:15 GMT

Issue began week of December 20.

I've had multiple Google Home and Nest speakers in our home for years. Nothing has changed in the past 6 months. 2 weeks ago, multiple speakers are answering when the wake command is issued. I say 'Hey Google, what is 1+1?' and two or three speakers will respond with the information or action that has been requested. There are four speakers on the floor I'm on. One that I'm next to, and others in completely separate rooms respond. There is one in a bedroom (2nd gen Mini) and one in the bathroom (Nest Audio) which regularly go rogue. The other in another bedroom is silent.

I understand that upon hearing the wake command, multiple devices negotiate with each other to decide which will respond. In this case they don't seem to be following that procedure (the one in the other room or the bathroom jump in even though the one I'm standing next to is closest).

I've rebooted the devices and the wake sensitivity is already set to low.

Why is this happening and how can I resolve it?

I have read existing articles but this specific issue (multiple devices on the same network responding to one wake command) is not covered.

I asked this question in the Google Assistant community but was asked to post it here.

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

TescilleRiser — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 03:07:30 GMT

I am having similar problems in the last 2 weeks. We have a Google Home Nest Hub Max and Nest Audio on the 1st floor - when I say “Okay Google set a ___ minute timer” to the Hub Max in the kitchen, there is a slight delay then the timer appears on the screen without an audio response. Then about ############sec later, the audio response comes from the Nest Audio in our home office. When the time is done, I see it go off on the Hub Max, but the audio alarm goes off in the office. We have 2 Nest Hubs and 3 Home Minis on the 2nd floor - similar incidents are occurring. I have unplugged all devices and plugged them back in - same incidents continue to occur. I need a hard reset or something.

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

seknav — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 13:04:35 GMT

Interesting. So that makes a couple of us where this issue started recently. How long had it been working before this problem popped up?

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

MoMan — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 12:19:09 GMT

I am having the same exact problem the interesting thing I have noticed from following the support page is that I think something in the home app on the phone things you are not on the same network as the other devices which is why my phone and the nearest Google device answer at the same time. I have checked my wifi on the devices and phone nothing has changed in that respect

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

Frostflavour — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 18:18:56 GMT

I just bought a Google nest hub 2nd gen and 2 google nest audio and something is funky. The audio is cutting out and volume is going up and down. The hub says it can't adjust volume, some times when i ask it to play music in a speaker group it just says that something went wrong. Now im getting this issue of multiple devices answering the same question. What the hell kinda backwards **bleep**ty product did i buy here?

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

Shinpads22 — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 19:32:11 GMT

I have the same issue. I will ask my mini or hub something and my phone will also respond. I've never had an issue before but keep having problems. Google please help!

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

Rooster194 — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 22:57:36 GMT

Same thing happening to me. Only in the last few days. Tryed rebooting all devices. Making sure all on same network. But no good.

Recently added 6 smart switches to the house through smart life app. DS you seem to start around the same time but I'm not sure why this would happen or if there's a solution

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

seknav — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 23:00:17 GMT

Can everyone edit their posts with an estimated date that this began to happen? We all kind of say this week or that time, but it's all relative based on when it was posted. If we just put a date then it makes it more obvious when this all started.

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

alecmcd — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 01:29:12 GMT

This is happening in our home now too. Have had a Lenovo screen in one room and recently replaced insignia speaker in another room with a nest hub. Now the nest hub is doubling responses intended for the Lenovo screen in another room. Not sure when it started but we added the new Nest Hub (second gen) around Early November.

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

TescilleRiser — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 01:36:46 GMT

Has anyone found a workable solution? Or how do we go from this community board to getting Google to fixing this problem. I think it is an operating system problem if multiple homes have similar issues.

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

seknav — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 02:16:42 GMT

Exactly. I wanted to see if I was the only one with the issue and it looks like there's a few of us. I figure if we can show that it all happened around the same time we can report it more formally. Maybe hit the tech news sites to see if they'll pickup the story. I don't think there are enough of us yet though.

Wrong Google device responding while using Google Assist

peterjmahan — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 14:36:36 GMT

Hello, I have an issue with which Google device responds when I access Google Assist. So, if I were in my bedroom and want my phone to respond but I hear that my Google Hub that's located in the kitchen responding. How can I dictate which device responds and when? I don't believe that my Hub can actually here me, and my phone is definitely activating Google Assist on the home screen. Thanks for any help you can provide

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

Bougie — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 01:10:06 GMT

Yup same problem here with my Home Mini, Nest, and 2 Hubs, plus my phone. All working great a week ago and now they're all responding. Rebooted all devices - didn't work. Reconnected WiFI, nothing. Still have to try unlinking my account or creating a new home in the Google app...but that seems excessive.

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

Cozy-B — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 18:12:48 GMT

Similar, likely related problem here. My devices aren't responding in unison, however my phone will always respond at the same time as my Home devices (1st Gen Home and a mini) also respond. They used to negotiate and the phone would stay silent. The strange thing is that I have a 2nd Mini that works correctly...in that when the phone and it are in the room together, both will wake but only the mini will respond. All devices are on the same network, same account, etc, etc. I can't figure out what's going on and why one would work fine but the other two don't. This all started relatively recently...like the last month or so.

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

Rooster194 — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 18:38:03 GMT

https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2022/1/6/22871304/google-home-speaker-group-volume-control-changes-sonos-patent-decision

This might have something to do with it!

Sonos sued google and won over group speaker technology!

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

alecmcd — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 19:13:42 GMT

This shouldn't have affected the set ups in November but anything is possible

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

GORDONexplosion — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 16:04:51 GMT

Same problem, suddenly phone and Home responding to "Hey Google." Except the phone keeps talking "Ok, but you have to unlock your phone first." Noticed it maybe a couple weeks ago. Existing troubleshooting pages ("make sure you're using the same google account on all devices!") don't work.

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

Rooster194 — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 17:54:29 GMT

*SOLUTION*

So i was at my whits end with this issue, so i turned to the factory reset as i have 6 devices in my home and sometimes 3 devices would respond.

I factory reset ALL my devices, minis and Hubs. Then reconnected them all one by one and the issue has resolved. I made sure they were all on 2.4Ghz wifi.

Hope this works for you too.

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

Bougie — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 01:27:38 GMT

I believe I fixed the problem... I removed all my devices from the Google home app. Then I factory reset all four (2 Hubs, 1 Nest mini, 1 Home mini). Re-linked and added the two Hubs first with no issue. Added my Home mini and found that a neighbour must have one as well (another showed up in my list). I picked my device but the connection dropped and re-directed to my closest Hub's WiFi to my neighbours device. This in turn unlinked my Home mini even after I added it. I had to go back in to my Home mini to re-link to my house WiFi. Now the 2 Hubs and the Home mini are back to normal. This occurrence probably happened before which caused the simultaneous responding as the devices were on separate networks...im guessing (emphasize guess). This could just be my situation but I thought I'd throw it out there. It may not even have been the other device that caused it, could easily have been a simple network issue which put the devices out of synch.

Re: Multiple devices responding at the same time

lando — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 07:41:07 GMT

As I posted on a duplicate issue, same issue here. Hopefully going to see a response from Google. Primarily happening between new Nest Hub and new Nest Audio.