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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
Meds
Community Member

Well, what an absolute PITA, thanks Google/Sonos for this little present.

I recently spent many monies to place Google Home Max speakers in the house..
Now I've found that controlling them from my Google Nest Home Hub Max (whatver that's called nowadays?) is really unreliable, the slider bars on the Hub become unresponsive and the only way to alter volumes on the other speakers is physically or from the phone. Physically is not possible as they're hidden away ontop of kitchen cabinets, and I dont want to use my phone.
I have to quit the music and start again, then volume control from the Hub fails again after a few minutes.
I now have very expensive speaker system that I cannot control the way intended or advertised.

There's a pattern here.. Anything 'Cloud' turns to cr4p at some point when the powers turn off features, upgrades stuff, introduces useless features and drops old products.. The consumer never owns the device and we're at the mercy of the cloud provider.
Electronic device waste is at all time high and will be catastrohic in years to come because the cloud providers render old products useless at somepoint with a future upgrade.



SamInPgh
Community Member

@JohnBartlett 

I'm not a bot. You're a bot...  😎

#NotABot

#PAYSONOS

Fyrefly925
Community Member

Ok so. This morning I had my speakers playing in a speaker group and - just for fun - I tried to adjust the volume of the speaker in the room I was in with my voice, and it worked?! WTF! This was the issue I was having that brought me to this blog. Anyone else experiencing this? 

tommykat1
Community Member

1/20/22 - Day 14 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?

Note: those similarly afflicted may wish to give negative reviews on the Google Home App installation page in the Google or Apple Stores.

nimajnebmai
Community Member

I can't listen to my podcast app or my audiobook player through my speaker group. Super glad I've got 300 dollars in speakers that don't do the specific things I purchased them for. I've been using Nexus and Pixel phones for years, Chromebooks out the ass. I'm switching ecosystems after this. Complete joke.

travist128
Community Member

I'm no lawyer, but you'd think Google Home/Nest owners would have a case against Google given that functionality was stripped away and we now own products that are less capable than when we bought them. Refunds or rebates should be in order, or Google should at least be updating us with the steps they're taking to restore functionality, either through new software that does not infringe Sonos' patent, or royalties that they will begin to pay Sonos for use of this patent.

I have 9 Google Chromecast/Home/Nest devices. I rarely use the Google Assistant aspect of my smart speakers, and my sole reason for purchasing them was to cast music from my phone to speaker groups throughout the house, with full control of the volume of those speakers and speaker groups. The reduced functionality of my Google products is extremely frustrating.

DavidJones
Community Member

This is extremely frustrating. If it doesn't improve, I'm going to switch out my devices for a better brand. I'm currently getting constant errors when giving my devices commands, it's bugging out when trying to play music sync'd across devices, speakers randomly falling behind and it clashing with the others, it having trouble casting to all the (same brand) google home devices. 9 times out of 10 I get a response "Sorry, an error occurred, please try again in a few minutes." I also would really like to adjust the volume of all my devices as a WHOLE. I'm switching, this is not the functionality I enjoyed when I bought them. Since Sonos has these patents, I'm going to check out their speakers to replace these Google ones.

tommykat1
Community Member

@travist128, you said:

"my sole reason for purchasing them was to cast music from my phone to speaker groups throughout the house, with full control of the volume of those speakers and speaker groups."

Nailed it, thanks. These are my issues, too. As I've said elsewhere, I'm now reduced to walking around the house with a portable speaker connected via Bluetooth, something I walked away from four years ago, when I bought Chromecast devices FOR THE SPECIFIC PURPOSE OF BEING ABLE TO BROADCAST AND CONTROL MUSIC FROM MY PHONE IN SPEAKER GROUPS THROUGHOUT MY HOUSE!

Meds
Community Member

Further to my previous post.. 
I seem to have full control of all speakers for a few minutes when using my Nest Hub Max volume sliders, but after a short while all control is lost, the sliders slide but nothing changes, well annoying. I've also noticed that the little image at the top right does not show the current track and seems to be stuck on a previous, tapping it does nothing either.
But volume control through the 'media' icon in the Google Home app still works fine. The group volume control is missing, though.
The only way to restore control is to fully stop and dismiss the music tile on the Hub and start again, but the cycle continues. 
If Google removed the feature why does it work for a short while then fail? I'm a little confused.

Speaker control via the Hub screen is why I bought into the ecosystem a few years back. Now it's a right royal PITA having to do it all from the phone.

Doug_
Community Member

I randomly tried controlling the volume of a single device other than the one I'm talking to last night and it finally worked! I've confirmed it's working to control other Nest Hubs, Android TV, and third party devices (via Home Assistant).

Prior to this problem, I used "set [device] to x%", which will still only control the device you're talking to. However, if you ask it to "set [device] volume to x%" it will work. Hopefully they will fix the variant without "volume" in the command soon.

rnbwpnt
Community Member

best to pack up some speakers and ship them to mountain view and include a big jar of vaseline. it's a message that needs no translation.

 

Halo69
Community Member

 

Hasn't anyone read my post? It really works but only for non-Pixel phones. 


SOLUTION TO GET PHYSICAL VOLUME BUTTON BACK IN GOOGLE HOME APP

Download an older version of the Google Home app and turn auto update off in App Store (make sure Preview Program is also unchecked in Home app). 

This link worked for me: https://apkpure.com/google-home/com.google.android.apps.chromecast.app/variant/2.46.1.7-XAPK

Still can't use Volume Voice Control but at least the buttons are back. Better than nothing. 

pixlr.jpg

 

 

 


 

tcarey
Community Member

@Halo69 

Your solution only works on non-Pixel phones. Google has deliberately disabled the ability for Pixel phones to control multiple speakers at once in the OS. So for many of us, these hacky workarounds are just adding insult to injury - they're not solutions, they're temporary band aids on a gaping flesh wound.

Gabriel1
Community Member

I have purchased additional speakers and displays for this exact functionality. Is there a rebate program that will be put in place? 

DannyOblivion
Community Member

@Doug_ 
I reluctantly tried this as I really didn't think this would work.... but it has. I set my speakers to adjust in volume at 2 times of the day. All speakers to 50% at 8am and all speakers to 20% at 10pm. Changing the wording in my routine to your suggestion has made it work.... Bizarre!

Halo69
Community Member

@tcarey

I'm sorry. I didn't know that. I don't own a Pixel phone. Trust me when I say that I only meant well, and I agree this 'solution' is merely a temporary band aid on a gaping flesh wound.

How Google chooses to treat its customers is outrageous. They simply don't care. Probably they're just waiting till this all blows over. There's no apology or intent to fix this.

More than anything, I want this key function back as well so my speakers work as advertised again. 

barrymilliken
Community Member

I can no longer control volume in routines. Even an unpaired and ungrouped nest wifi point doesn't work. My routine has this action "set speakername to volume level 3".

Assistant says "done", but when I look in home app the speaker is till at 50%.

Doug_
Community Member

@barrymilliken, have you checked in the past day or two? If it's still not working, try using the syntax "set [device] volume to 30%". That works for me as a voice command, and DannyOblivion confirmed it works in routines.

Holmes
Community Member

Yeah, my issue is that google use to be super reliable. Now I’m having issues across the board and its hard to get support. I use to hate apple’s ecosystem mindset but now I’m starting to question it.

 Hopefully Matter makes choosing between super large corporate platforms a thing of the past and smaller companies can start making more customized options for different parts of the home

 

barrymilliken
Community Member

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/77380

I tried that syntax. It works by voice when i am speaking to the mic for that device, but not in a routine where i have to refer to the device name.

Kobanchee
Community Member

I cant believe its been 2 weeks, and this STILL hasnt been resolved. As a customer who paid for a certain level of functionality (voice controlled speaker groups) I should not be the one to pay for your indiscretions. I would never have invested in the Google ecosystem if it didnt have this functionality, so either get a (legal) work around in place or pay the royalties.

Yes, yes i know Sonos have an absurd patent and thus monopoly, but Google has a duty to its loyal customers to deliver what was promised and what we expect.

As an avid Google supporter, its stuff like this makes it so very difficult for me to defend and recommend Google products to friends and family.

Very disappointing.

tommykat1
Community Member

1/21/22 - Day 15 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?

Note: those similarly afflicted may wish to give negative reviews on the Google Home App installation page in the Google or Apple Stores.

Radeon
Community Member

Come on G, you can do better, just get along with sonos. This functionality is must have.

ThaylonSen
Community Member

I hope Sonos go bankrupt.

How do we manage paired stereo speakers now?

Is there a 3rd party app yet that undoes the damage?

Scooter-Trash
Community Member

And you just deleted all of my speaker groups.  This is really bad software engineering that you can't handle change!  I guess I'll go set up the different groups again.  

tommykat1
Community Member

An observation on why we haven't heard from Google: the corporate attorneys have likely directed the company bloggers not to say anything more as plans are being made. Sometimes no response is the best legal response. 

tommykat1
Community Member

Like @Scooter-Trash, I just lost all my groups, too! It happened within the last hour (1:15 PST).

It's maddening this company does updates without permission, even with auto-update turned off! 

Jslachta
Community Member

As of a few days ago, my chrome cast remote no longer can control or be paired with my Sonos speakers. Is that related to this lawsuit?

ThaylonSen
Community Member

Yup... My speaker groups just disappeared as well. What a load of b****x!

Edit: To be fair, they've just come back... Weird.

serpiltameryild
Community Member

Slm

serpiltameryild
Community Member

Pislik

tommykat1
Community Member

...And then, later this afternoon, my groups came back. 

I can only assume Google is messing around with the app, and though we are paying customers expecting to reap the benefits of advertised features, they see us as mere guinea pigs to experiment on.

Keeka
Community Member

As of today, I am still not able to cast my audio to all 3 of my google mini's at the same time. The firmware version is up-to-date and they are all connected to the same wi-fi network. I even rebooted all my devices as advised.

You said you are "making some changes" and that the "speaker group functionality will work moving forward". When is this "change" expected to happen? Will I be able to cast my audio to all my google home mini's at once, like I had been able to do before? If not soon or not at all, I would like a refund like the rest of the unhappy customers.

StephaneRitchot
Community Member

I own a combination of 18 Google Home, Nest Gen2 and Nest Display. This is whole integrated with 2 Chromecast and an high end wifi Onkyo system.  With this change, my investment in Google is not getting me what it was meant to do. 

My smart home is comprised of 77 different products, all controlled by the Google system.  I even bought a mesh router with  4 points. My house was a showcase for Google until this change.  Since I lost 50% of my usage based on advertised functions, will I receive 50% of my investment in Google?  When I started, I debated between your product and Sonos.  The compact size of the minis, which can be easily hidden out of site, got the advantage.  Changing manually all of my Google infrastructure volumes is a cumbersome task.  

Please let me know what Google intends to do for the hard-core enthusiasts like myself. 

cawauk
Community Member

So since this morning: "hey Google, play music on home group". Reply: "sure, would you like to play that on home group, home group or home group?". I only have one home group setup, and only one visible in the app. So I say "home group". Nest audio replies "sorry something went wrong".

What are you playing at Google team?? Seriously. Product development going down the drain faster than suction toilets on a Boeing 777.

FixSpkrPairVol
Community Member

Has anyone else noticed that in the Home app devices are no longer able to be selected for display or rearranged? I assume it's not just me. I used to be able to go to Room Settings, long press a device and drag it into the desired position, to rearrange the order buttons on the main screen are displayed. Also, I am no longer able to hide items by unchecking them. The save button is greyed out no matter what changes I attempt to make.

 

Minor compared to all the other issues, but yet another unannounced change and annoying none the less.

 

@GoogleNestTeam  please stop constantly changing/breaking/fixing(?) things with no notice or communication. Zero communication may be a great legal strategy, but it's a terrible way to treat loyal customers and extremely frustrating. Please start a change log, issue tracker or functionality status page for customers (not just developers). These simple offerings would save a heap of headaches and help minimize the ill will this constant churn causes. 

tommykat1
Community Member

1/22/22 - Day 16 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?

Note: those similarly afflicted may wish to give negative reviews on the Google Home App installation page in the Google or Apple Stores.

maybegarbagenow
Community Member

Should we consider a Class action? 

mikeyo
Community Member

Ok, this is now getting ridiculous. I have 4 hub displays to control cast music levels of all my speakers/chromescasts (Google, JBL, Harmon and LG)  throughout my house. When music is now playing on any group my LG WK7 Speakers (I have 4 of them) sit in, the hubs do not even reflect these speakers as being part of the group, even though they are playing. So I can't control them from my Google hub displays which was the reason I bought the hubs. The hubs in media reflect now playing X group, with no option to access the LG speakers as part of the group or individually.  I have to alter the volume physically at each speaker or grab my phone to alter the individual speakers in the Home app. The LG speakers are running cast version 1.36.157053 . If no music is playing, they are available on the hubs individualy, so they are seen. So whose issue is this now? Google's or LG's? When did Google give the OEMs a heads up this legal issue was going to break the kit they sold to their customers in good faith? Seems rather than it being Google or LG's issue it has become my issue and I'm far from impressed by that. There was no end of support period advertised by either Google or the OEM's on Cast capability of their speakers, so this is insane. Deliver what was advertised and worked previously, make this right. If it's the only way, #justpaysonos 

barrymilliken
Community Member

Except for my sony smart tv (which has no problems with the nest system) I have 100% google products: router, 2 points, 4 speakers, and all was working til a couple weeks ago. Now have all the same problems. The only way to control speaker volume in the home app is to go to the individual speaker or speaker pair.  The volume bars in the media tab and in YT Music don't work anymore. Half the time YT music lists only 2 or 3 devices available for casting.

tommykat1
Community Member

1/23/22 - Day 17 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. I'm back to using Bluetooth on a single portable speaker! When will you reinstate the advertised features we paid for, Google? I'm counting the days, or will there be a refund soon? 

Note: those similarly afflicted may wish to give negative reviews on the Google Home App installation page in the Google or Apple Stores.

leogames
Community Member

Has anyone else noticed that adding music through Spotify also no longer seems to work?

I used to say "Add this to my playlist" and the song would appear in My Music, but now "she" only says:

"Something went wrong. When you're ready, try again."

..which of course, is what happens when I'm ready. Google Home still isn't.

 

Aquarius
Community Member

@leogames :

I get the same vocal error message, however the music is still added successfully 🤔

Saridnour
Community Member

Not being able to cast my audio to my full house speaker group is ridiculous. It  reaks the reason I use my speakers for music and was one of the reason I bought all eight of my assistant speakers. Very disappointed in Google. Im inches away from going to Alexa to correct this lack of forethought from Google and their blatant disrespect of their users. 

tommykat1
Community Member

I've tried all kinds of questions to the assistant, all failing to work. Example: "Cast Samsung music from my phone to [speaker group]. She will say, "okay," and then the Samsung music player will play on my phone, but not to the group. I can cast to an individual speaker, but not to a group.

If I use the term "all speakers," which is one of my groups, it will take me to a Samsung help page  and the assistant will read to me what I already know: outdated instructions relating back to before the disabled service.

Also there is a reference to being able to designate one of your speaker groups as the default group, which goes nowhere. 

In short, Google is still touting features it has disabled or removed.

leogames
Community Member

@Aquarius What the..

Dude, I just looked and you're right!

I don't know what's worse, features not working or them working but you not actually even knowing about it!

 

Facepalm, Google. Seriously.

#PAYSONOS

RafikiHome
Community Member

This leaves Google devices with very little home automation  (mutlti-room) features. For me, after this, Google is not a viable solution anymore and I am looking at other solutions.

fpatou
Community Member

In the end, we may wonder if Google would not have designated a task force to solve this mess, made up of a band of monkeys which develops and another team of donkeys which deploys without any logic between each others. The objective of all this would be to see and study our reactions here, in order to have a new artificial intelligence algorithm which can then produce the destruction of the google home solution by itself 😁.

 

To be serious...have you seen how the google audio environment has been full of inconsistent behavior for several weeks now...groups disappearing then reappearing randomly. It's new now there are also several times the same group !!! , from youtube music, you can make a sign of the cross before being sure that the music will reach the speaker. Honestly it looks like no one is steering the ship, from a distance it really does look like anything but professional.

Messsk
Community Member

Hi @JohnBartlett 

To be clear, a suite of products that I purchased from Google is no longer functional due to negligence on their part. I am rightfully upset about this.

tommykat1
Community Member

1/24/22 - Day 18 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. I'm back to using Bluetooth on a single portable speaker! When will you reinstate the advertised features we paid for, Google? I'm counting the days, or will there be a refund soon? 

 

Note: those similarly afflicted may wish to give negative reviews on the Google Home App installation page in the Google or Apple Stores.