Not able to control fan speed for awhile now

[Gungrave223]

Anyone else having issue controlling fan speed from the Home App? I feel like it's been like this since the new single tap to control UI was introduced.

Before it was possible to control fan speed with a slider like you can control dimmerable lights, but now it's just a single on/off toggle.

Any reason for this change?

[JillG]

Hi @Gungrave223 

That may be on the fan brand app if you have it installed. Try clearing the cache of that fan's smart app and also the Google Home app. Ask Google Assistant to "sync my devices" and see if that helps.

What brand is the fan and control you have?

[Gungrave223]

So I'm pretty sure this is an issue with the Google Home App.

I have multiple smart fans all on different platform. I hate 2 Lutron fan controller, a Hampton Bay Smart Ceiling Fan, as well as a Smart Tower Fan from Dreo. Each device is showing as single on/off toggle in the Home app but all have multi level control on their respective platform.

As I've noted before...it was possible to control the fan speed in the Home App... the question is was removal of the feature intentional or a bug?

[JillG]

I don't see my fan (Bond) speed slider in the Google Home app. Not sure if I ever had it. I do see the slider on my Nest display.

Could be an intentional removal from the Home app.

[Gungrave223]

Well the removal seems to be serve side. I just installed a version of the app from 2019 and the slider shows up for a brief moment before disappearing.

Also the ability to control the fan speed is still on Hub Max so super weird that it's being block in the Home App. 🤔

[Booey]

This is one of the most annoying things about the Google home app. Not being able to change fan speed is a crazy limitation, especially hearing that the ability is present in the Hub Max product and the same thing happens on multiple brands of switches and the Bond hub too. Saves me time from experimenting. I even tried joining the beta of Google Home app and no difference there, just a half baked implementation of making devices "favorites" that can't be reorganized or grouped in any way. It's actually less functional than the regular device listing, which I didn't think was possible. I'd love for someone from Google to actually comment on the future of this platform, not just ask us to fill out a feature request form that goes nowhere.

Is "Matter" going to make a difference some day? Or will it just mean that we have to buy all new hardware?

I've been putting it off for a while but I think it might be time to bite the bullet and stand up a home assistant server.

[Juni]

Hi Booey,

Thanks for posting here in the Google Nest Community and sorry for the late response.
 

I’m sorry for the trouble this has caused you, let me help you out. A few things: what is the make of the fan that you are using? Could you tell us the issue that you are experiencing on your switches too? What steps have you taken to fix it? We appreciate your feedback about the Public preview.
 

Here is a helpful link about Google devices and Matter.

Looking forward to your response.

Regards,

Juni

[Gungrave223]

The public beta, while still lacking, did fix the issue for me. I have a lutron switch and a Hubspace fan, both of which have fan speed control in the home app now with the latest Home public preview. 

[Juni]

Hi Gungrave223,

Awesome! Glad that fixed your issue. I'll keep this thread open for 1 more day to wait for Booey's response.

Regards,

Juni

[Booey]

Hi all,

Unfortunately the public beta didn't hellp with my Treatlife B086PPRWL7 fan switches. They only have on and off control, no speed. I left the beta because a few months ago because I wasn't a fan of the new layout but will join back up to see if it's any better now. Not sure how often it gets updated, have there been changes in say the last 2 months?

[Gungrave223]

I haven't notice any major visual changes... But I like the direction that the app is going (even if the app across the aisle is still significantly better)

I say try the beta again because most of that is probably server changes. 

[Juni]

Hi Booey,

Thanks for trying that. Sorry that you are still experiencing the issue. It seems like the issue is isolated to Treatlife. Did you try contacting their support team for an update?
 

Keep me posted.

Regards,

Juni

[Dan_A]

Hey there,

I wanted to follow up and see if you still need help. Please let me know if you are still having any concerns or questions from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Best,

Dan

[Booey]

Hey thanks for reaching out. I don't think there will be much we can do from this end, and I don't have high hopes for getting anything out of Treatlife or Smartlife support. 

[Dan_A]

Hi Booey,

We totally understand that troubleshooting can be frustrating, but these are the most helpful steps to figure out what's going on with your devices. Also, reaching out to Treatlife or Smartlife might help us a lot. Let's give them a try!

Kind regards,

Dan

[Booey]

Thanks Dan, you are right. I've reached out to both Treatlife and Smartlife support to see what they say. Thanks!

[Dan_A]

Hey there,

Thank you for your understanding and patience. I'll keep the thread open for a few more days and wait for your reply. There may be certain limitations but all this still depends on the 3rd party devices that can be synced to Google Home. The partner themselves manages the URL portal used to link partners in the Google Home app. Issues encountered when linking a partner (home control) should be directed to that home automation partner for support. Partners are expected to support the integration of their products with Google Nest and Home devices.

Looking forward to your responses once you get a hold of them.

Cheers,

Dan

[Booey]

Still getting the runaround from their support. Asking questions about information I provided up front, in one email saying it's not supported but in an email minutes later asking for useless screenshots.

Here is what they said in one reply:

Sorry for my delayed reply.

Because the Google don't have light/fan this catagory, it is the reason why you can not control the fan speed on Google APP, but you can voice command the fan speed. Could you please check agai n?

I informed them that other brands of fans and apps seem to support this and I had already confirmed in my original email that voice control works fine.

I don't expect them to ever truly and honestly answer my questions or get actual development to occur. Most support nowadays is just scripted responses, nobody actually reads troubleshooting notes and applies logic to their suggestions. I'm just getting what I paid for in these cheap devices and there is no guarantee that they'll work with other infrastructures like Google Home.

[Booey]

Well, as expected Smartlife (Treatlife) support has done absolutely nothing to troubleshoot the problem. Every time after I reply with lots of good troubleshooting notes, I'll get one email at 2am saying this is not possible, and to contact Google for support because the panel I see in the home app is set by device category. Then at 3am I'll get another email saying we'll forward this to the engineering team. I'm beginning to think they are just gaslighting me.

Here are some of their replies:

Dear user,

Our technicians reported that the panel of the device in the third-party app is usually automatically generated according to the device category. For the problem of voice control failure, we can help you to troubleshoot.

However, for the panel in the third-party app, it is recommended that you can contact the google support team for further assistance.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

Then later this morning I got this reply ....

Sorry for my delayed reply.
But you should not control the other brand fan and light switch on Google APP, am I right?
I will forward your suggestion to our engineer to confirm, hope we could do better in the future.

This was a reply to me explaining for the 3rd time that the voice commands work fine, it's the app that can't control fan speed 

Our technicians have tried and found that the wind speed can be successfully changed through this voice command:
turn the fan speed to 1/2/3/4/low/high, we suggest you can have a try it.
If this can be controlled successfully, it means that the voice command is fine.

It's just a never ending cycle of irrelevant questions and requests for screenshots designed to fatigue the customer in to giving up. 

[Booey]

Here is the latest from technical support. I've already written them back and told them that other manufacturers have this capability so they should too.

"Sorry for my delayed reply.

We are sorry that because the Google don't have light/fan this catagory, it is the reason why you can not control the fan speed on Google APP.

It did not have such a function to control the speed on Google APP for the fan and light switch."

[Azarco]

Hey Booey,

We understand and sorry for the inconvenience. Hopefully this feature will be fully supported on the future updates. We appreciate your efforts in contacting your fan manufacturer. You can also leave your feedback in the Google Home app as we continually improve our products and services. 

Let us know if we can assist with anything else otherwise, we'll lock the thread after 24 hours. Should that happen, feel free to start a new thread and the Community would be glad to assist you.

Kind regards,

Alex