Spoken broadcast message changed to spoken message??

[realjax]

So when I broadcast a  spoken message to other devices in the house, the nest devices start to analyse the message and then change it to a spoken message using the google voice.  I know this sounds absurd and that is exactly what it is.  Why on earth would you want to change a spoken message into a.... spoken message??? Which 9 out of 10 times is wrong as well!! How do I turn this 'feature' off and prevent the home devices from trying to analyse spoken broadcast messages??

[Kremer]

We are having the same issue in our house. We have 6 Nest Mini's which are all broadcasting with the Google generated voice. Very frustrating, and we don't even know who's saying what message unless we include our name. Please update this thread if you find a solution. I may switch to Alexa if this isn't remedied.

[Saints09]

Same issue here, I really hope Google rollback this unwanted "Feature" ASAP!

[Firenight]

I Agree 100% with you.  We used to use the boadcast feature to have an intercom in different rooms and levels.

The new translate feature not only takes forever half of the message does not translate.  This could be a useful feature for sending a txt to android devices outside of home location.

Technology is great, but BRING BACK SIMPLE!!!!! Record the message and rebroadcast it accordingly and make the feature avaliable to turn on if desired.

Seriously considering on selling all 5 google home devices and GETTING ALEXA 

[ViciousNarwhal]

Alexa is not going to treat you any better.  The only way to get the service you want is to DIY.  I may start gutting Nest speakers and put in a ESP32 that I control.  At least when it's local, then when there's a problem I can actually DO something about it.

[Oceandeep]

You are absolutely wrong, Alexa works much better in this area. Announcement works like a charm in my house and the Drop In feature is excellent! I can have a little chat with my partner and kids when they are downstairs and i am in my work room upstairs!

[VickStiX]

Yeah if they don't fix this DOON I'm selling all five mind's and going with Alexa as well. So tired of all the Google glitches. 😡😡😡

[SHAZBOT]

Totally with you on this. When you're required to ring someone to ask them what their broadcast was SUPPOSED to say, then the appliance is redundant. When "I've gone to the kitchen", is relayed as, "I wanted a chicken", the whole world's gone mad.

[Ssb]

Yeah, boo, this is rubbish! You ought to hear the mess it makes of Chinese 

[DillanWeems]

Well, my devices were back to normal for a couple weeks but this issue returned earlier this week. All messages are text-to-speech again, and the delay seems even worse than before. Also, this time around the broadcast messages are not being announced on all devices. The devices that do make the broadcast seem to be random, it may be only one, or just a couple, but never all devices. (The latter is also happening with scripted automations broadcasts so it may be its own separate issue)

[Anney]

My mom is 95 years old living in a residence 200km from me and I used to broadcast my voice to her everyday and was the only way we could communicate, its was very reassuring to her, and litterally saved her life many times as i was able to communication directly with medical staff in the room, now it's gone and has made everything we've worked on useless, she is alone, cannot use a phone, google broadcast with my VOICE is a necessity, PLEASE FIX BROADCAST WITH MY VOICE on Family room speaker !!!  PLEASE ...

[Nomad-NV]

This is just flat out racist of Google. Their software translates english half-assed but other languages it can't do at all. Their lack of response to this is also bordering on a racist behavior as many here are bi-lingual and can't use these.

[VickStiX]

We've had this same problem for a month now. I called Google and they did very little troubleshooting, since there seemed to be only one setting to check, and that feature was already clicked to on.

Google created an escalated trouble ticket, since they said this was NOT supposed to be happening,  and that trouble ticket was supposedly escalated to technical support two weeks ago, yet the problem still exists. I agree with your post 100% this problem is beyond frustrating, and it's not what I bought my five home minis for. We deserve better. They need to FIX THIS ASAP!!!

[ViciousNarwhal]

Notice that there is no official responses here.  Either they've done this on purpose without notice, or it's a bug they're taking forever to fix.  Either answer leads to degraded trust in Google as a platform for Home Automation.

[hvanmegen]

The issue is back for me; no longer are messages being sent as just the original voice messages, but now all we hear is Google's sh!t text-to-speech voice without a clear sender, with tons of errors and without the correct inflections.

Why can't they just be willing to be honest with us and just tell us to stop using their devices?

Being able to send broadcasts and call between rooms was the primary reason I bought their sh!t devices in the first place!

I'm going to look for alternatives as Google is dead to me, since we're clearly dead to them.

[Sinbad316]

no joke. i've legit been planning to switch over to the Amazon Echo because of their bullsh--....

[Nomad-NV]

Apparently Alexa's "Announcements" system is now being advertised by Amazon who is reading all these posts and seeing a market for them to jump on. I have a Dot in a desk drawer and getting a 2nd one to try out. If it works then we're swapping over. BuhBye Google.

[Anney]

google please FIX IT

[Anney]

GOOGLE PLEASE FIX BROADCAST WITH MY VOICE on Family room speaker !!! THIS IS URGENT

[DevilDog1888]

Commenting here in the hopes google reads this and actually gives a crap. Give us our voices back. Mine is still not fixed

[theshowman]

Since one of the main reasons I use Google Home products, which I have several of embedded around the house, is the broadcast feature - and it is effectively and utterly useless now (I used to use a combination of English and foreign language - but even now, speaking to it in clear English is flakey at best) - I have finally succumbed to pulling out from my Electronics closet my Echo dots (3 of them) and Echo Shows (2 of them) to test out and will possibly be replacing the Google products with them.  I am not a big fan of the Alexa voice but at this point, I can get over that part. 

Nice going Google for deprecating your own products!

[ExtremeGamer]

Ours have been using the Google voice for months.  We’ve tried everything. Seeing this thread has prompted me to order Alexa devices and get rid of the Google devices we’ve had for years.  If it’s not been fixed for months and everyone having this issue I’m done.  This whole thread frustrates me because we are all dealing with it. 

[MplsCustomer]

Here's a thread on the same topic on the Google Assistant forum:

https://support.google.com/assistant/thread/239279352/why-broadcasts-are-no-longer-using-my-voice-in...

[lardo5150]

I am about done with the Google Ecosystem.

Been with them for years.

Constant changes to the chromecast and its features (which I use every day), automations now breaking, and the broadcast is a huge thing for my house.

Today after reading all of this, I think I am going to switch to Amazon, which I have been putting off.

[Kaissandei]

This is so frustrating! The speech to text seems to be delayed. The minis beep, then it comes through 10 seconds later and most of the time it’s only half of the message or garbled. We finally got the one blinking light issue fixed and now this. I was hoping it would get resolved but it has not and it just getting worse. 

This is not an upgrade, this is a downgrade. 

[Oceandeep]

I am done with google smart home ecosystem. I just literally bought an Alexa echo, set it up with my existing smart devices and it works like a charm. It did have a little problem that the echo linked to my Amazon US e-commerce site instead of Amazon Australia which is where i am residing. I contact the live chat support and have my problem  resolved in 5 minutes.

Last time when my Nest hub got freezed (under warranty). It takes me hours to get in touch with them in live chat and got insulted by the CS agent. They are not willing to do any RMA at all.

Back to this topic, the Echo/Alexa “Announcement” feature works seamlessly no matter from Echo to Echo, Mobile Phone to Echo and Echo to Mobile Phone. The “Drop In” feature allow you to make calls to and from any Echo and your mobile phone. I solved all my issue now.

I am about to throw away my 5 Google Nest Hubs, 1 Nest Doorbell, 2 Nest Flood Camera and 3 Nest Indoor Cameras. 

Thank you Google.

[KimmieB]

We bit the bullet and replaced with echo pops... has a few extra features which are handy like you can text them when you are out and about and the message is relayed. Came in handy when my phone was on do not disturb and my husband was in an accident and couldn't ring me. He just text the echo.

I do miss the find my phone function which Google had and alexa doesn't... but that's about it. The broadcast function is great.

[Oceandeep]

Echo does have a “call my phone” feature which can be used to locate your phone in small proximity.

[Sinbad316]

I've had the problem ALOT as well lately, apparently it seems to be a stupid update that google has shoved down our throat, and it no longer broadcasts our voices and uses the Google assistant voice with text to speech. Which is AN ABSOLUTE DOWNGRADE from that feature previously was, it worked better when we had our own voice messages being broadcasted.

I am legitimately angry and P-Oe'd at google for this, believe me. And most of the messages come out as gibberish because of that, and they take 5 to 10 seconds to be sent to other devices, whilst the regular voice messages was near instantaneous.

I dont know why or what the hell was in their heads when they did this, but google, for the LOVE OF GOD. STOP, DOING BAD UPDATES AND RUINING FEATURES.

You already did broke YouTube, now you're breaking our hardware? Wtf.

[VE3QMM]

We are so fed up with Google's change to voice-to-machine voice that we are now just using our cell phones.  The delay to get even a timer or a broadcast message sent is over 20 seconds and most times it is messed up.  Google Home bring back the voice messages or I will soon be dumping the Google Home speakers...

[VE3QMM]

Well, somebody's listening at Google (maybe) since about 48 hours ago we discovered that our broadcast messages are back to being voice recordings.  Yeh!!  Broadcast messages using voice are soooo much better and more responsive without getting "lost" as much.

[RAP8068]

@GarrettDS  

@Markjosephp  Can you help us?

[BobbyPalmer]

I as well am having this issue. My broadcasts are not being translated accurately by the Google Voice and then the garbled message takes several minutes to actually send. This has become overly frustrating as regular users across our home. I am considering a switch to Echo! FIX THIS GOOGLE!! 

[Oceandeep]

not only the smart assitant, i am also changing all my Nest cameras to Ring. They acquire Nest and ruin all their products. The new Google Home app is a real joke when it comes to managing Cameras.

[Frankki]

Maybe Google has decided to become racist. It can no longer broadcast any mixed language messages.   Forcing us to only speak English to Google. Even then, the message is never right.   Missing the mood and inflections in our voices

[theshowman]

Well, it seems to be working again.

I can broadcast in my original voice, finally. Let's see how long it lasts for ...

[MarielaRD]

I just checked and it is now broadcasting the original voice message! Fingers crossed it stays that way.

[Noddydog]

Yep, ours is back to normal today. But we had this same scenario a few weeks back, where it was our voice….until it wasn’t a few weeks after. So let’s see if it sticks!

If not, we’re definitely going down the Alexa route. Fortunately most of our smart devices are third party and work with either. So Google it’s your call!

[DevilDog1888]

Ditto here. Ours magically started working again 2 days ago. Guess someone at Google decided to actually listen... The question now is, does this apply to the larger Google community or just the people on this forum.

@google - maybe don't roll some shady crap out in the dark of night again without running it by your customers!

[hvanmegen]

Works here too.. lets hope it stays that way..

[EffanyBoy]

Same here mate, I hope it stays that way considering the complaints Google got when they switched to text-to-speech.