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GoogleNestTeam
Community Manager (Admin)
Community Manager (Admin)

Hey everyone, 

Due to a recent legal ruling we’re making some changes to how you set up your devices and the Speaker Group functionality will work moving forward. If you’re using the Speaker Group feature to control the volume in the Google Home app, by voice with the Google Assistant, or directly on your Nest Hub display, you’ll notice a few changes: 

  • To adjust volume on your speaker groups, you will need to adjust each speaker individually instead of using the group volume controller. You’ll also no longer be able to change your Speaker Group volume using your phone’s physical volume button. 
  • Most Speaker Groups should continue functioning as expected unless you have a speaker group containing other brands of Cast-based devices, like JBL or Lenovo, they need to be on 1.52.272222 or higher Cast firmware version. Check out this article on how to find your device’s firmware version or contact your device maker. 
  • A small set of users will need to use the ‘Device Utility app’ (DUA) to complete product installation and updates. You may receive a prompt to download and run DUA, and it will ensure that your device is connected to Wi-Fi and receives the most updated software version. 

We will continue to support our users and work to minimize any additional changes.

Thanks, 

Google Nest team

993 Comments
UncleJab
Community Member

Google just pay the royalties or buy Sonos out all together… y yaw bein so cheap its gone cost yaw more overtime when them class actions hit

Daxmort
Community Member

I invested in a whole cluster of Google devices after moving into my new home; two homehubs, three minis, a Google home speaker, a Chromecast and a Chromecast audio, and I've now got three ultras.

All of which now fail to function as they were advertised when I purchased them. Up until this point, I had always been supportive of Google products, and frequently recommended them to friends over Alexa.

Seems I was wrong. Trust the most wealthy company in the world to screw over its userbase and the millions of dollars spent on devices rather than just #PAYSONOS the money for their patent.

You've all screwed up here. Absolutely pathetic. I know the Google team are probably avoiding this thread like it's radioactive now, but my God, this is pathetic and harmful to its users.

I won't be investing in any larger screens or speakers as planned. May as well install the Alexa my brother bought to "persuade me" to switch to another greedy company. At this point, at least one of them still has their full original functionality.

Didaho
Community Member

Oh!  Are you finished?! Well allow me to retort!

I chose the Google ecosystem, bought a **bleep** ton of devices, and took the time to set them all up. I did all this SPECIFICALLY for this functionality.  So you can take this absolutely ridiculous reply about functioning as expected and shove it straight into your mother's cold womb.

 

Are you actually **bleep**ing kidding me with this?!  This is your answer?   Do company's get so big that the departments start inbreeding and become god **bleep** retarded?!  How can you honestly step on your own **bleep** this many times?!  

 

I hope you bunch of "innovative" **bleep** suckers get your head out of your asses quick and fix this, because if you don't I am headed to sign up for the nearest class action suit and Amazon.

Bantamajhi642
Community Member

This action isn t allowed my youtube channel suspended

Bantamajhi642
Community Member

This action isn t allowed my youtube channel suspended #########

staticfunction
Community Member

You either pay Sonos royalties or issue us refunds. This is not what I paid for. 

NeoDoc
Community Member

I have more than 15 Chromecast enabled devices in my house, and when I give a voice command, I expect them to respond as expected. I don't feel like that's novel enough to patent, but if it is, Google should be willing to pay for it.

This is yet one more disappointment from Google, a company that has lost its sense of customer service. To catalogue the most recent implementations of customer disservice:

  • Removing the previously promised unlimited storage on Google Photos (even with compressed photos). Couldn't you have just applied that to videos and created a cap for number of photos?
  • Discontinuing Google Play Music in favor of a less usable interface focused on forcing users to the paid service. But even when I signed up for the premium family plan, I couldn't give YT music access to my children under 13. A supervised account is completely disallowed from accessing the service. This was not the case with GPM. I suppose it's because seventh graders don't listen to music ever.
  • Discontinuing the Nest Secure product line just after I had outfitted my home. And never allowing more than one base station in the home (e.g. front and back door). This just shows the risk you take in investing in (and recommending) Google products. They have no problem with killing off a good product line.
  • Shotty group speaker support.

Honestly, if I had known about these horrible degredations, I would have stuck with the Amazon/Alexa ecosystem, which was where I started. #BaitAndSwitch #CustomerDisservice

Withdrawnmist
Community Member

Let's face it. Google don't give a flying **** !!  Maybe they need some help. They must be struggling.  I shall sell my house and all its contents to help Google develop a resolution. 

Will_i_ams
Community Member

I bought five speakers that I was really happy with as I could control them all with one function; now not fit for purpose or as sold. Having to adjust each speaker individually is frustrating and time consuming, not what you'd expect from a smart speaker. Incredibly disappointed and feel cheated that I thought I got a good deal. You've lost my custom and I definitely will not recommend you to anyone!

AKA228
Community Member

Fellow Google Users,

I posted earlier in the thread, but just wanted to post again and warn people that Google has removed major features like this and screwed over customers before, they just don't care. Google was the first to have direct casting/control to Sonos speakers from the Google Play Music App back in 2014. When they shut down GPM for YTM they never added this direct casting/control feature back in, screwing over a lot of users Sonos systems. The worst part is, Google told us for almost 2 years this feature was coming back and still nothing to this day. In my eyes, Google has become a company that does not care about their users and will strip functionality away from them without thinking twice or having any solutions. I suggest everyone be very vocal about how Google treats their products and customers and do everything you can do steer other people away from their products and services.

networked
Community Member

Not only have you wasted customer's money, you've now turned a pro google fan into one that will actively avoid google products in the future. Hugely expensive far more than a small license fee would have cost you. I'll now need to throw away all these useless cast devices to replace with hardware that isn't nerfed by software. #RIP Google Reader. Clearly this company never cared about user experience. 

-Craig
Community Member

There have been a few announcements of reduce functionality across the Google Home/Nest products recently, I am not sure where the Product team are heading anymore?

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Message-from-our-GM-Updates-for-our-Nest-customers/ba-p/...

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Comparing-the-new-2nd-generation-Nest-Cam-indoor-wired-t...

 

 

 

 

Lancew
Community Member

What an absolute shame. I've been struggling the last couple days and couldn't fix it and now I know why. Having 3 groups and 6 Google's speakers, 12 lights and a Google assistant TV never mind 3 chromecasts, I feel pretty let down by such a big and wealthy company like Google. So much investment from my side and so many other customers, you'd think they would compensate or better yet.. pay off Sonos!

Cyclonic
Community Member

Do you understand how insane this is?   This was literally THE reason i purchased 2 nest minis, nest home max, nest home, 2 google home large speakers and the 3 pack google wifi for the 2 speakers included in the APs.  

Any now you are neutering the features i specifically bought these for?!  I want a refund on the 7 or so speakers and screens i just bought through this last year!  What the actual hell?!

Svisse
Community Member

Im just dissapointed.

Checked the status of the five granted US patents (US9967615, US10779033, US9344206, US10469966, US9219460) that belong to three patent families, of which only one family (the family US9219460 is a member of) comprises any granted European (or national) patents validated with annuities paid in the jurisdiction i reside in. US9219460 family relates to systems and methods are for device playback calibration and not "adjusting volume of a speaker group".

Hence, the issue here is really a non-issue for me personally as Sonos, in relation to the above families, has no valid patent rights (of the above related to group speaker volume adjustment) where i reside and yet Im getting screwed over anyway.

Surely, the patent department of Google has the manpower (at least intern-power) to map applicability of all of Sonos granted patent rights and pending applications in terms of claim applicability to countries and just add a feature filter in the app such that consumers "legally" unaffected by Googles-escapades-in-skating-on-thin-legal-ice can retain the removed features while they (Google) continue their work on resolving legal matters or finalizing licensing negotiations.

Hell, based on the ongoing litigation between the parties any patent department such as Googles would allready have done the above and knows exactly what patent rights they are infringing (or at risk of infringing) and in what jurisdictions.

Freedom-to-operate analyses are an important tool to learn what you can do without infringing on anyone elses patent rights AND a must to avoid embarassment such as This mess.

My final words to Google (in the form conscripts in my country learn during service): Redo, make right, get out of my face!

 

 

mist_understood
Community Member

Anyone who bought google speakers to use as a cluster instead of Sonos made a mistake.  These lawsuits could have hurt Sonos if Google won.   You always take a risk when buying a product that it will become unsupported completely or just partially.  Not getting the 'I want a refund' crying.  I'll send you all my HD-DVR discs, Beta tapes and circuit city videos.  The google speakers are still good speakers, sell them and buy Sonos. 

 

 

tommykat1
Community Member

1/11/22 - day 5 of disabled functionality prevents mirroring my device to cast audio to speaker groups. My Chromecast array of 15 stations and 30 speakers is now worthless. Im back to using Bluetooth on a single portable speaker! When will you supply a solution, Google? I'm counting the days, or will there be a refund soon?

nn_mm
Community Member

This is completely unacceptable. Restore the functionality or I want a full refund for every google home and mini device in my house. This is literally why I have them: speaker groups.

rszewczyk
Community Member

Per your post:  "To adjust volume on your speaker groups, you will need to adjust each speaker individually instead of using the group volume controller." If that's now the case can you explain to us what's the point of speaker groups? These make the speaker groups practically unusable to me. If my partner asks to buy another Google speaker product I'll lean towards telling them "No" unless this is fixed.

 

#PaySonos 

fatesounds
Community Member

This is complete garbage and I'm pretty sure goes against consumer protections for false advertising.  I just finished getting transferred over and over again trying to get a refund on my 400 dollars worth of your speakers to create a surround system.  Small claims here we come!

Pknalldall
Community Member

Hey Google, do something! That's awefull and no solution! 😞

Lzice
Community Member

I assume I will be getting a refund for the 10 Google speakers I own? Did this as a whole house audio solution and now would have to go room to room to reset volumes. Routines that did this before don't work and obviously the groups dont work. I'll be returning the new device I just purchased but would like compensation for the others that now don't work as advertised. I bought them specifically for the group audio functions. 

TimoNoNo
Community Member

One way to make this a good thing, is give users a option to use local  API controlling the individual devices.

Using local control, the delay between individually adjusted volume and group volume would barely be noticeable. By moving how we use the devices from google to local, the lawsuit from sonos would be invalid. - it would be the user automating, not google.

nickp001
Community Member

Without going into too much detail, I can assure you that the possibility of bringing a class action law suite against Google is being looked into by the necessary legal entities.  Sit tight!

Bnsherer
Community Member

I was just contacted by a law firm who got my information from the report I made to ClassAction.org about this matter. They have asked me to take pictures of and scan documents from the original packaging (most of which I still do have) of the many devices I purchased over the years.  Will update here as more info becomes available. ...

nickp001
Community Member

@Bnsherer They contacted me too.  Asked for the same info.

aquamoogle
Community Member

1/11/2022

 

So instead of paying royalties to Sonos like you should you are passing the ruling into customers who bought (multiple) speaker products which could accomplish this and now cannot.  Where are financial reparations for this bait and switch tactic to consumers?  I bought 6 because Google had the speaker group features we wanted and now this is a BIG loss.  Where do we get refunds for this?!

Bnsherer
Community Member

Here are the boxes ive found so far 

PXL_20220111_201253680.jpg

 getting ready to scan and send in the product features and representations found on the boxes and the accompanying documentation from within the boxes ...

leogames
Community Member

Very interested in joining any class action, if indeed possible given that I'm from the UK and don't have many/any original boxes. But I'm behind anyone who can stand up to Google on this and their utterly substandard treatment of their customers - unless of course they decide to..

 

#PaySonos

 

Please do share details of how to join if you have them, for my benefit or everyone else's!

CPngN
Community Member

Google, would you just pay the license and work something out?  How about instead of fighting Sonos, you co-brand and co-operate?  As a consumer, I would be 10x happier to put some high end Sonos in my mix of Nest speakers and displays and have everything coordinate.  Put the Sonos name in the corner of the display if you have to. That's not a negative!  If the solution is to remove features or come up with some half-assed workaround to avoid paying for the patents you blatently ripped off, you are going to lose customers left and right!

Bnsherer
Community Member

Screenshot_20220111-144645.png

Skitchbeatz
Community Member

With this recent change, what reason do we have to believe that future Google products won't be neutered as well? This is a black mark on Google's record. I don't intent to pick up any more of your hardware again.

3VL242
Community Member

Yeah, no. Fix this. This is BS.

Scipio
Community Member

What does mirroring audio to have to do with this court ruling? Why would you remove that functionality as well? The main reason I bought this system and have over 30 chromecast speakers is because of the audio mirroring function, with your removal of the group audio page, you also removed the ability to mirror audio... 

KagBB
Community Member

Thank god! I am very happy with this "downgrade" I found it more then a little irritating that the volume in every room changed just because I changed the volume in the kitchen (where I often have my hands full or dirty) with my voice.

So while a lot of people may complain, I am very happy.

Sorry you lost, but I am not in the least bit disappointed

Chef_Joe_BBQ
Community Member

You guys screwed it up! 

welcome back alexa! 

BYoungSD
Community Member

Thanks for the heads up! I was in the process of switching out 8 Amazon devices and luckily came across this, so I'll be returning every single nest audio that I just bought. 

Extremely dissatisfied and I can't imagine any of the other big players in the smart home tech space doing this to their customers... Shame.

dammer
Community Member

This is ridiculous. I have six different Nest devices, please send me instructions on how to get my refund. 

johnharris1979
Community Member

This is ridiculous. We’re talking about a core feature that everyone who has groups set up relies on. I have 9 speakers and multiple groups set up in my home, and this is going to greatly affect my user experience. PAY THE ROYALTY. 

tcarey
Community Member

The only way to get Google to seriously reconsider their stance is to shame them in the mainstream press (NYT, The Times, WSJ, etc. - NOT tech news that is only read by a niche audience.) Given this grave choice by Google affects every single person globally owning a Google speaker, display or 3rd party integrated audio device, I should think they'd be rather interested to do a thought piece or an opinion column informing end users about the perils of buying into the ecosystems of unscrupulous companies like Google.

It would be easy to run this as a story about how consumers buy into smart home or cloud based products but have no guarantee that core advertised features will not be removed later if the company does not prioritize looking after their customers, as Google often fails to

Posting further complaints on this forum is unlikely to have any impact, as Google has already received the message from the past 7 pages worth of (rightfully) angry customers venting their frustration.

mikeyo
Community Member

16 Chromecast speakers/receivers in my house delivered by either Google or Google's technology partners. All sitting on Google Wifi network augmented with multiple Nest Displays for control solely so I could have multiroom audio as advertised by Google. This is a big screw you to everyone who invested in your ecosystem and your response to it is laughable. If you have been judged to have infringed on patents, it should be you to pay the price, not your customers and OEM partners. 

BrianWG
Community Member

I live in Denmark so can't do **bleep**, but can this og you who live in America make a case a drag them to court, for degrading a product they are selling to a point where the main reason you buy the product is gone. 

Timelydf
Community Member

I don't think any law suit will succeed. I'm sure Google terms and conditions protect them. Suggest just leaving an honest public review somewhere so that prospective customers don't waste their money as we have.

Matt6
Community Member

Wow! I have a whole home audio system using many google products, along side JBL, Lenovo and LG "chromecast" built in devices.

 

You are choosing to effectively BRICK my entire system because you don't want to pay the royalty fees owed.

 

It is now very clear where "customer satisfaction" sits in the Google Nest Priorities... clearly at the VERY BOTTOM of the list. I hear the new Nest slogan is "Profit above all else, screw loyal customers"... catchy!

TechAddiction
Community Member

Last nail in the coffin, Amazon here I come.

QH
Community Member

Customer class action against Google seems a relevant conclusion. Indeed, user experience is degraded and not as previously sold by Google.

limo_
Community Member

This is completly unaccaptable, my speakers are now completly unusable for my usecase. If this isnt resolved in 2 weeks ill ditch google and get into a new ecosystem!

Andybrad
Community Member

At this moment in time it would be prudent to reach out to customers and let them know you are working on a solution.

Clearly google thought they could win but they haven't. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this mess. however a timeline or suggestion of how to resolve the issue would stop a lot of the bad press.

 

I would expect that people on here are in the 0.01% of customers so they really do not care about us.

evechris
Community Member

Très déçue.... je vais revendre mes enceintes pour m’acheter des Alexa du coup.

Billymalcolm
Community Member

I have I have 7 nest speakers and I want refunds on all of them.