topic Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?! in Speakers and Displays

Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

Biggsyboi — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 22:48:03 GMT

When did THIS happen?!

I don't even get the error message. The group either just drops the speakers, or the group disappears entirely.

Google IoT eco system has become unreliable

CockeyedObserve — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 01:28:19 GMT

The google home eco system degrades by the day. The latest issue I face is that my speaker groups have disappeared. Every now and then a couple pop up but mostly they are gone! Functionality that has been working perfectly for years.

Previously there were several issues with the Tuya integration with multi-switches suddenly becoming a single switch. Whilst mine have re-appeared, it is clearly still an issue for others.

Several years back, I bet on Google being the best platform for my primary hub and invested in many speakers and even WiFi (which I've moved away from due to capacity issues). Now it appears that I made a mistake.

Waiting for China to offer a holistic platform - at least then, there will be some certainty in service levels.

Re: Google IoT eco system has become unreliable

Princesss — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 21:32:55 GMT

Hi CockeyedObserve,

Thanks for reaching out.

We're sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues with your Google Nest speakers. To further help you with this, let's sort these one by one.

How many speakers are included in your speaker group?
How far are your speakers from each other and from the router?
Have you made any changes on your network before you noticed these changes?

Also, with regards to your Tuya devices' connection, have you already reached out to Tuya support?

We'd love to know more of it so we can start some steps in resolving this. Keep us posted!

Best,

Princess

Re: Google IoT eco system has become unreliable

CockeyedObserve — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 02:53:08 GMT

The answers to your questions

1. I have several groups and the number of speakers varies from 2-4. I should emphasise that these groups have been working perfectly for at least 3 years until around 3-4 weeks back.

2. The speakers range from 2-20 meters from the router but are connected to access points that are around 2-10m from the device. Once again they have been working for quite some time and when used individually, the speakers work fine.

3. No changes - they were working perfectly one day and not the next. There may have been an IP addess change as I'm not on a fixed IP address.

I should mention that I re-installed the home app on android device the speaker group appears for a few minutes and then disappeared. Now the only speaker groups that sometimes appear are for google displays. Groups with google audio cast devices don't appear.

In the Home app, the speaker groups used to be listed at the end. They have disappeared from there. They also are not listed under the settings "Devices, groups and rooms".

I created a new group that lasted a few seconds before it disappeared.

I should mention that there are many complaints about this issue on the internet.

In relation to the Tuya device issue, the details are in this thread - Re: Google Home not recognising multi-way switches... - Page 5 - Google Nest Community

As stated before, mine are working ok for the time being.

Many thanks for your assistance.

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

Questix06 — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 17:47:50 GMT

Thank you!!! I thought I was going crazy. What is going on ? I hope this is some kind of mistake ? They will surely fix this with an update right ?

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

vincent77 — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 18:00:57 GMT

unacceptable !

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

David_K — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 12:11:04 GMT

This change happened on or around 12th Sept it seems. As far as I understand, this should only impact you if you're trying to create new groups and existing device groups should not be impacted.

For others benefit, this is the help centre link that is being referred to:
Create and manage speaker groups - Google Nest Help

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

Svb1 — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 15:30:17 GMT

Why on earth would this be a thing? I was factory resetting stuff left and right and it kept getting worse and suddenly this is a limitation to speaker groups now? Tell me this is temporary because of some weird bug or something?

Also: right now I can't even add speakers to a single speaker group anymore, what are they doing?

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

Biggsyboi — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 17:32:33 GMT

I'm not sure if it will be fixed or not as this didn't used to exist - I know this because I have the speakers in a few old groups I created, so this is a new limitation added, seemingly without any explanation

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

Biggsyboi — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 17:34:45 GMT

They seem to have added this limitation without any explanation, I don't understand why. My mind goes to the limitations they've added in the past due to being sued for copying other's patents without paying a license fee. Is that what's going on here?

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

anibharadwaj — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 20:19:32 GMT

Yep, due to recent patent litigation. Existing groups are not impacted.

Source: https://9to5google.com/2023/09/18/google-home-speaker-group/

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

kelanfromgoogle — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 21:12:21 GMT

Hi folks,

In light of a recent legal decision, users will no longer be able to add new Nest devices to multiple groups. There are no changes to existing speaker groups.

Thank you for your understanding.
Kelan

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

Biggsyboi — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 21:37:00 GMT

Not sure I'm feeling very understanding of the products I spent 100's of dollars on having features removed.

Especially if it's because Google would rather remove the feature than pay a license fee?...

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

BenW — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:01:44 GMT

Generally, I've been a huge and loooong time supporter of all things Google. This is too far. I've got no less than 20 devices in my home that this impacts. You can't go on a campaign about playing nice with others about RCS and then turn around and not play nice with others. While I know this is money I've already given to Google I can't fathom spending another cent on their smart home products. Cameras etc. You never know when they'll lose functionality. Also, they never fully migrated nest. Apple doesn't seem to have this issue either.

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

Biggsyboi — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 01:25:52 GMT

I'm not sure if Amazon/Alexa does, either. Unfortunately, any money spent on the Google equipment that's had as vital a feature as this removed has pretty much lost their money. This is very very disappointing.

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

jrlebbs — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 20:52:33 GMT

Legal decision = Google doesn't want to pay Sonos a licensing fee.

This is another major round of feature degradation, all because Google won't just license the tech from Sonos. Google just needs to stop screwing over users and pay Sonos. This would create good press all around.

STOP REMOVING FEATURES BECAUSE YOU WON'T PLAY NICE.

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

saintxseiya — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 14:51:43 GMT

Isn't there anything we can do like sue google on removing essential functions?

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

Biggsyboi — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:02:15 GMT

Could depend on where you live but in the US there are no rights/protections for virtual functions - all the smart home companies could make their products useless and there's nothing we can do.

I think the speaker groups thing just needs to be publicised so that people stop buying Nest products until the feature is restored.

Google stole sonos technology and refuses to pay licensing - we can't control speaker group volume

Bnsherer — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:55:12 GMT

Google lost the lawsuit to Sonos and refuses to pay the licensing fee and as a result we cannot control group volume with a single button. Pay sonos!

Re: Google now limits speakers to one speaker group only?!

Bnsherer — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:58:19 GMT

I have no understanding for you to thank me for. What I understand is that you stole Sonos technology under the guise of a partnership and refuse to pay licensing fees and as a result i can no longer control group volume and now can't even make multiple speaker groups. Google is a shady company who makes their customers pay for their criminal activity