Google Assistant voice commands not working

[okcool]

I have had a number of smart devices added to Home app via linking my Home Assistant account. I primarily use voice commands in Mandarin to control those smart devices, e.g. turning lights on and off, playing music, etc. It used to work perfectly but somehow Mandarin voice commands stopped working for certain devices recently. All the lights, switches and the Samsung TV simply won't respond to Mandarin voice commands, however, English voice commands for those devices work fine. So confused...  

I've also noticed that my Samsung TV and Air Con are connected to Home app via Smart Things; whilst the TV is not responding to Mandarin voice commands now the air con still works with Mandarin with no issue. 

This is so tricky and I can't figure out the reasons behind all these...

Please assist. Thanks in advance. 

[HALXP]

Same, I have EN and French, and 2-3 days ago, "turn off all the lights" stopped working, telling me to say "turn off all the lamps", when I do say it exactly like it tells me, it repeats that I need to say "turn off the lamps", I wish we could have control on updates, everything in my house was working 3 years ago, it started with the electric window shades not working and now the lights 😩

[midibear]

I speak EN and Chinese Mandarin and I don't think I had communicated with my 1st gen Google Home in Chinese Mandarin before, until few days ago.

Not sure if this is related but I used "OK Google, then spoke "set alarm for 7AM tomorrow" in Chinese Mandarin. Ever since then, the Google Assistant in my Google Home acted up, and now if I use simple voice command in English such as "OK Google, walk me up at 7AM tomorrow" or "OK Google, set alarm at 7AM tomorrow", it would now say "Sorry, I don't understand". 

This seems to be related to Gemini which is now part of the Google Assistant, but it seems that Gemini can not do "bi-lingual" fluently yet.

[Muddi]

Hey folks,

Thanks for visiting the Community.

I know how it feels when you can't control your smart devices using the Google Home or Nest device. Let's try to get to the bottom of this. Please try unlinking and relinking your smart device account from the Google Home app and see if you still have the same issue. This will refresh the connection between your devices from the Google Home app.

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers,

Muddi

[okcool]

Hi Muddi,

Thanks for getting back to me. 

I tried unlinking and relinking the devices (via Home Assitance account) before and tried it again just now. Unfortunately it still wouldn't work. Still the same symptom - English voice commands are ok but not Mandarin. Not sure about other languages though.  

[Muddi]

Hi okcool,

Thanks for trying. What country are you located in?

Cheers,

Muddi

[okcool]

Hi Muddi, 

I'm in Australia. 

Thanks for looking into it😀

[Princesss]

Hey there,

Thanks for confirming. Could you please provide the cast firmware version of your Google Nest speaker?

To check which firmware version you're on, follow these steps:

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap your device's tile.
3. Tap Settings Device information.
4. Under "Technical information," check for Cast firmware: "X.XXX.XXXXX." If the device is on Fuchsia, check for System firmware version: "X.XXXXXXXX.X.XXXXXXX"

Check the version on your Nest display

1.  Swipe up from the bottom of the display screen.
2. Tap Settings About device. You should find your "Cast firmware version."
   • For Nest Hub (1st gen) and Nest Hub Max: If “Fuchsia Version” is also listed, this means your device runs Fuchsia.

Looking forward to your response.

Best,

Princess

[sunnyskies]

Hi...I don't have a nest display...I only have the speakers/wifipoints and the router.

Here are a couple of screen shots from one of the wifi points that does not work with the lights.

[Princesss]

Hi sunnyskies,

We appreciate all your efforts. We'd be happy to take a look into this for you. Please fill out our Contact Us Form with all the needed information then let me know once done.

Best,

Princess

[sunnyskies]

Ok...I filled it in. Please contact me to troubleshoot.

[Princesss]

Hey there,

Thanks — we got your form and we've escalated it over to our higher level of support for further review. Please keep an eye on your inbox as someone will get back in touch with you soon. 

Best,

Princess

[Markl66]

Not good with technology, don’t understand how to do that 

[HALXP]

English command voices and through the Pixel 6 Pro Home shortcuts UI integration both work.

Using French/Canada language, if I say "éteint toutes les lumières" (turn off all the lights) it says "... vous devriez dire éteint les lampes" (You should say turn off the lamps) but when I do, "Une erreur s'est produite, essayez plus tard" (An error has occurred, try later). Aren't there unit or functional tests to prevent such a major regression ? 

[sunnyskies]

Hi, I am having a similar problem. I use Kasa plugs to control lights in my home. They were all working fine for  a long time...but several of them have stopped working with voice commands with the assistant. But not all of them. Only certain plugs stopped working. Another strange aspect is that ALL the lights/plugs work in the google home app push button controls inside the app...but not voice control. Strange and irritating. I tried to reconnect the plugs that were not responding...but the same problem persists. I also tried to say "hey google sync all my devices"....it reports a glitch with a few devices....

[Princesss]

Hi sunnyskies,

We're sorry for the delay. Are you still experiencing this with your Google Nest speakers? Have you already unplugged your Kasa lights and refresh your network settings simply by unplugging your router from the power source for at least a few minutes? Let's try these steps and let us know how it goes.

Best,

Princess

[abdurohman]

same here. used to work perfectly from assistant app on ios using voice in bahasa (Indonesian Language). now bahasa only works by typing, but all still good with english. before I discovered that it was still working well in english, I thought it’s google strategy to make people buy more nest devices rather than utilizing the standalone assistant apps 😅. because when I give the voice command, it still prints what I said correctly. but somehow it’s just disappearing soon after, instead of executing it.

[abdurohman]

update: just found out that changing the iphone language to bahasa make it works again 🤩. not sure if it’s a glitch or not, but in assistant apps itself we can add 2 languages we want to use within the apps for voice command, but looks like it’s conflicting with phone language. in the post that’s not the case

[Princesss]

Hi abdurohman,

Thanks for letting us know about this. Glad to know that the trick you made worked!

Please continue to monitor your device's behavior and let us know if you notice any changes.

Best,

Princess

[sunnyskies]

please see my updated post today.

[Princesss]

Hi sunnyskies,

Thanks for all the details you've shared. Make sure that the language set for your Google Assistant is English. Let us know if this step worked.

Best,

Princess

[sunnyskies]

Hi, my language was already set to US english. So that makes no difference. I speak to the wifi point in english and it has always spoken back to me in english...so that does not seem related to my problem.

[sunnyskies]

Hi, I am still having problems with my Kasa plugs. They still do not respond to google assistant voice commands with my google nest wifi points. Do not understand...but it is very frustrating.

I have tried restarting my router, restarting the network, unplugging the wifi points and re-setting up the kasa plugs...this is draining a lot of time. Please help.

A new thing to report...is that after I restart a wifi point....it responds to voice commands for a few hours sometimes....(but not all the time)....and then it stops working completely again later in the day. So there appears to be something the restart that sometimes causes it to function.

Note again that my problem is the voice commands only...everything works fine inside the home app when i push the buttons to turn the lights on an off. Please help.

[Caroma]

Did you solve this? I have the same issue where commands via voice assistant are not working however the Home app still functions as normal. 

[sunnyskies]

Hi...no..I have been working with google support for over a month by email and still no progress on this. Its very frustrating...the wifi points don't response to any commands (they won't tell the time or the weather or nothing for example...its not just that they don't turn on the lights...but my internet works just find throughout the home...so its very weird). Is this what yours is like too. Here are again are my notes:

1. I have 4 wifi points...one is very close to the router...and it also behaves the same
2. the mesh test shows very good connection to all the wifi points
3. I have fast internet (fiber)
4. All other devices operate just fine
5. The lights turn on in home app on my phone
6. The lights turn on with the google assistant in my phone
7. The wifi points won't even tell the time or anything...!!
8. It works for 1 hour when resetting the network but then stops working

[Mjchenow]

I am also having the same problem with my lumary light switches. The sunset sunrise routine and the voice commands to turn on or off suddenly stopped working. I can turn off and on the app but not by voice.  I have already performed a reset and relinked devices but no change. This seems to be a common problem. Please send an update to the firmware to fix what stopped working.