Loss of Continued Conversation on Home Devices After Gemini Switch

[Adrock]

I’m writing to express deep frustration with the recent change from Google Assistant to Gemini on my smart-home devices.

Before this forced transition, Google Assistant included a free and essential feature called Continued Conversation, which allowed the Assistant to listen for several seconds after a response for follow-up commands. This made interactions feel natural and fluid, exactly what a voice assistant is supposed to do.

Now that my devices have been switched to Gemini, that same feature has effectively been removed and replaced by Gemini Live, which is only available through a paid Home Premium subscription. In other words, I’ve lost functionality that was previously built into my devices unless I pay an additional $10 per month.

This feels like one step forward and two steps back. Users never had the choice to remain on Google Assistant, and yet a feature that has worked for years is suddenly being treated as a “premium” option. It’s beyond disappointing — it feels unfair and, frankly, deceptive.

From a consumer standpoint, this raises serious concerns:

Google devices were marketed and sold with “Continued Conversation” as part of their advertised functionality.

Users purchased these devices with the expectation that such features were included as part of the product experience.

Removing this capability and putting its replacement behind a paywall feels like a breach of trust, if not bordering on misleading business practice.

I already pay for a Google One subscription, and I strongly believe that Gemini Live should at least be included in that plan, or better yet, offered free to all users as a continuation of the functionality we already had.

Please reconsider this policy. Don’t penalize loyal users for adopting Gemini — especially when the “new” feature simply replaces something that used to be free.

[Krunked]

Sure wish my god **bleep** devices would update so I could use the subscription I pay for. Smh 

[Bear81]

I 100 percent agree. I never liked the Alexa devices because of this very reason. Continued conversation is the primary reason I bought so many Google Home devices, including the Nest Hub. I, too, pay for a Google One subscription. Your recommendation of including it with that sounds more than reasonable if they are going to penalize us for an upgrade we can't remove. It truly is frustrating and I can only hope Google listens to their customers and resolves this issue.

[alllan]

Fully agree.  I am stuck without continue conversation after a brief test of Gemini, then reverting to assistant.  No forewarning.

[devz]

This is driving me nuts. I used continued conversation all the time. This Gemini feels more like a downgrade. 

[Bconmpls]

Just came to the internet to see if everyone else was mad. I'm with you guys. It's BS.

[Nick2323]

I wholeheartedly agree that this is a downgrade! I am not paying any money just to have a conversation with Gemini. I don't use the video so I couldn't care less about that. Just want to play music and have some follow up questions answered without having to say hey Google after every prompt. I will probably just get rid of them at this point. They don't really seem to be serving a use for me and what seems like a lot of other people. 

[devz]

I don't get it. Did they take away the feature and pay wall it now? That's extremely scummy. They really need to start addressing these issues. Over the last 5 years Google has given me more reasons not to use them than to use them. I've already been transitioning away from Gmail. It's a process, but it'll be worth it in the end. After the way they just keep abandoning things we've used for years, Google Play Music (YouTube Music is an absolute downgrade and disgrace in every way), Google Street View, Google Podcasts, just to name a few. I think this is the final straw in the Google coffin for me. 

[Krunked]

Yes. They did.

[uselessusername]

This is incredibly annoying. I used this feature all the time on assistant version of Google home and now I'm constantly having to repeat myself because it was never listening to the second command. 

[Alexandradw23]

I hate it too! Aside from all the things everyone else has said, I would also use continued conversation to thank it. It's how we kept up the habit with the little kids in our family of saying please and thank you.  Now I kind of almost feel ignored after I give it a command, like it's upset with me 😞 

[Amr88Tua]

Google will never listen to us anyway, this is falling on deaf ears. I just asked it to say something in Spanish and apparently it now is part of Live translation or something like that, monetized of course. F*** them!

[Nick2323]

Google makes 37 Billion in profit per quarter from using our time by making us watch ads on YouTube and websites, and now that is not enough they want to tax us as well with subscription costs and still make us watch ads. I don't need a smart home that bad, I still know how to flip a light switch. 

[Ixpagan]

 Just found this out now. So disappointing. After the new year I’m done with google devices. That front door bell will be replaced!!!

[Gambitus]

I payed the $10 a month because i was under the mistaken impression that the Gemini Live feature was them charging for continued conversations. It is not. Its not even close. Don't waste your money to try to find out. The continued conversations is a must have feature and it needs to be put into Gemini now. I love the fact that my Nest home speakers sound more human when they sy something to me but I just end up hating the experiance because I have to say "Hey Google" all the time or try to say all the things I need Gemini to do all at once. While we are on the subject why can't we just say "Gemini" instead of "Hey Google". 

[devz]

The worst part? Amazon Alexa just added continued conversation. My lone echo dot just started doing it the other day after I got the notification. Guess for now I'll be using Amazon more. Shame.