Media Alarms are stopping??

[vs271]

Last night, after I set up my daily media alarm for this morning, I got a google message saying that Media Alarms will stop on February 1st and that it will be replaced by a regular "alarm sound"??!!   This better not be.   I will NOT be happy about this one bit.  I do not want to be woken up with an alarm beep or tone.  I want to wake up in the morning with sound of music of my choice or radio station.  Is anyone else getting this message?   Like I said, if this is the case, I will be switching to *gasp* Alexa!  

[IanMcG]

It's a crap inflexible workaround

[ByronP]

Hi folks,

Thank you for the post. Sorry for the inconvenience caused by this feature.

Please see the following link to manage and create an automation to set up an alarm so it can isolate the issue. Also, here is a link to share feedback so I can better address it and work on an update on this issue.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Byron

[Queenmother]

Automation does not isolate the issue for many. I don't work a mon-fri 9-5. I have a different wake up time each day. 3 days a week -and those days vary every week, I get up for work at either 5:30 or 5:45 depending on the work role I am assigned. The other 4 days, I may get up to take the kids to school at either 7 or 7:30 depending on the day of the week. So I had to set an automation for 5:30, 5:45, 7 7:45 AND I set two for each child. I don't want to grab my glasses and stare at the light on my phone every night while I scroll through the several automations google has that I can't get rid of plus the 8 automations I had to set and find the ones to choose for each night and then click on them and then activate and then save and then go back and do it again for each kid. What a pain! Media alarms were an advertised feature when I spent money on 8 speakers/hubs. Now they are junk. Especially the hubs that don't even read off results to me any more. But that is another forum. So Google, or Byron - what is more convenient and intuitive? All that seting up and clicking every night? Or quickly asking Alexa to do the job Google can't do anymore? You're fired. She's hired. Alexa outperforms in this area. 

[IanMcG]

We don't to create automations We want media alarms back. 

[Jason-Not-Young]

With all due respect Byron

You can verbally try to repackage this cancelled feature but your essential service providers, your paramedics, firefighters, police, nurses, doctors and many more often have changing shift times based on the work they did the day before. Many of us deal with some very hard things and we have researched ways to make working with a schedule that changes daily and for years using your now abandoned feature was one of a couple of things (Having google wake my bedroom lights gradually being the other) I used every morning to assist me in waking up in a decent frame of mind rather than frazzled. I have been using Alexa every night for the past two weeks as I found it hard to reply on just waking my lights. Soon I do plan to migrate over to Alexa... Not because I like her more but because Alexa likes me more than Google as Alexa still does what I bought it for. Waking me up to music rather than something I have to scream stop at only to drift off again. My work has a potential consequence of somebody losing their life. If I don't make the change and miss work because of it... It impacts a LOT of people. 

[Queenmother]

This!!!!

I'm a nurse. I work varied days, holidays, weekends, 12 hour on-call shifts, and the standard beeping alarms? They do nothing for me. I listen to various beeps all day from monitors, call lights, IV pumps, bed alarms, door alarms, overhead codes, etc. I dream about them. 

[davemad]

Thanks at least for effort Byron, but for me at least (and I can see for others) your post provides absolutely nothing new (if perhaps you'd taken some time to read some quite detailed posts in this thread, you would have been aware that posting a link that google itself provided at the same time they announced the end of media alarms was not going to be particularly helpful).

Most posters here have made it quite clear that automations are just not good enough.

If there is some way of creating an automation which emulates a media alarm (as Google people keep saying without providing any specific examples), then let us know exactly how. it needs to be something into which you can input the following information every time the automation runs: time of "alarm", media content (radio, spotify etc).

Alarm time and media NEED to be variable. 

To recap: what's needed is a specific example. Links to general "you can make automations" sites are not good enough.

[ByronP]

Hi Queenmother,

Thank you for posting. Sorry that this isn't working with you. 

I understand that this could be frustrating to set up. So here is the link to share your feedback about this issue so it can work again to return this feature.

Regards,

Byron

[Roachy]

Hi Byron,

Thanks for the reply but it is really a bit too little and too late.  Unfortunately as mentioned  routines 1. Are difficult to set different times each day and 2. They cannot be snoozed. 

I have already move to an Alexa Show 5, which after using it is a far better device and ecosystem than what is offered by Google.  

Unless Google returns Media alarms it highly unlikely that I would return to Google. 

[Queenmother]

My guess is every single one of us already used their speaker to send feedback. I'll also guess we are hoping someone from Google reads forums.  This move is a deceptive trade practice. It is regressive. It is inconvenient to many of your loyal fans... the ones that have been telling their i-phone friends to get over their green dots. I can't recommend Google products to friends now, they'd blame me as features were stripped away instead of added.  So thanks for trying, really. But instead of sending us more unhelpful links, could you send someone from Google the link to read this forum? 

[IanMcG]

Hi Byron

Google isn't listening to our feedback and the speakers are getting worse all the time. I don't think they want customers. 

[ByronP]

Hi Folks,

Thank you for posting. 

I understand this has been a frustrating experience and the importance of media alarms in your daily lives. Rest assured, the team is still looking into this issue, and I'll update the thread once there is more news to share.

Regards,

Byron

[KVKdragon]

Just weighing in again after all this discussion has gone underway. This removal of a vital feature is affecting my capability of waking up from deep sleep. I quite literally depend on radio alarms since it is a different sound every time I set this alarm. Having the radio only turn on after the alarm is dismissed (via that patronizing abysmal substandard automation) assumes I was awake to the generic alarm tone to begin with. It is absolutely appalling that this feature was removed when it is clear by this thread and many others that this media alarm feature was not “under utilized”. I am seriously considering moving to Alexa smart speakers unless this vital feature is added back to Google Nest smart speakers. It’s ridiculous that this vital feature was removed and it’s downright outrageous that the clearly evident backlash hasn’t brought it back yet

[Queenmother]

KVKdragon, Alexa pop is $6.99 right now and was seriously easier to set up than a mini. It's so worth it, save yourself the headache and upset and order one. I spent $15 on mine but the price has gone down even more, I guess someone with Alexa saw an opportunity for a market share grab. It sits right next to my mini, I only left the mini so it can hear me talking to Alexa 😀 

At this price point, I'm going to go ahead and replace each bedroom speaker.

[IanMcG]

I've given lots of feedback. Google isn't listening. They obviously don't want me as a customer. 

[Pinkrider]

Yeah I got the same thing I'm so mad about it too and I'll never buy anything Google anymore for that reason......I'll be going to Alexa as well

[vs271]

Over the past two months, Google has seen the dissatisfaction of this decision that many enjoy and more importantly rely on.  I tried the automations.   They are fine for one offs.  But i don't want to have to check the app every night to see if the wake up time works for me.   I ordered my Alexa and it will be here in a couple of days.   I was going to get another google home  for another room but nope.  We'll see how Alexa goes.  Who ever signed off on this decision was wrong and should be questioned. 

[parestailor]

They still work, you need to use an automation: https://d.pr/i/jzgNEn

[davemad]

Thanks parestailor, but this is exactly what we've been discussing and that just isn't useful to a lot of us. I know about this automation (since Google eliminated the media alarm), but I want a media alarm that I can vary (time and media) depending on circumstances. Since I frequently travel, for example, if I forget to deactivate such an automation (an inconvenient manual process), then I have an alarm going off when I'm not home. Not so good for others...!

[parestailor]

Can you not turn off the automation before travelling, or if you forget, remotely stop the speaker from transmitting audio? I honestly can't see what the huge issue is.

[sharpius]

If you don't have an issue with it, great, for you.  However a growing number of us do, as it's a function many of us purchased it with and/or for.  

[Queenmother]

I think if you would read all of the above, you'd understand better. Automations are convenient for a set-and-forget. They are not convenient when you have a different wakeup time each day. I found it super easy and convenient to spend $15 on an Alexa though, and now I have this feature back. 

[IanMcG]

No. Automation are a TERRIBLE alternative. 

[peterzarrella]

I think the true bottom line is that, you don’t send out an “improved” product by removing a well used, well liked feature. This is just a poor strategy, especially when the competition is eager to replace you. And as a result of this move, it appears many will take the initiative to go with Alexa/Echo as a solution.

[Queenmother]

And they send us to a poorly designed feature like automations. The fact that I can't delete or re-organize the built in automations that I don't use is laughable. They clog up my screen. Yes, I know they can be deactivated but, they are still there, cluttering it up, and they can't be hidden or moved so they just taunt me as I have to scroll past them to the bottom of the list where my own automations sit. 

[madeirabhoy]

has anyone who uses automations managed to get it to play bbc radio 1 (or 2, id accept radio 2). My google home has woken me up for years with bbc radio 1. it knows what bbc radio 1 is, because when i say hey google play bbc radio 1, it plays bbc radio 1. this morning was the first trial of using a 'routine' in which i clicked on play radio, and typed in 'bbc radio 1' and i woke up to a rambled explanation about what google cant do, followed by it saying it had found something on spotify, followed by death metal. 

[Kadven]

Hi @madeirabhoy 

Try this in creating the routine.

In the routine, don't use the 'Play and control media' option, instead use the 'Try adding your own' option and give it the command 'Play BBC RADIO 1'

Do not know why but I have generally found that using the 'Try adding your own' options appears to be more reliable so try it and see. I use a routine to play the radio and using this option always seems to work.

[madeirabhoy]

thanks that worked 

[madeirabhoy]

thanks ill try that when i get home. at work just now and was thinking the only way i could think of is proper old school, generate an mp3 of text to speech of 'hey google play bbc radio one' and then use a mp3 alarm clock app on my mac to play that file every morning, but yours sounds easier so ill try that first, thanks. 

[Queenmother]

I don't know about all that ridiculous hoop jumping but I just tested Alexa and she had no problems with BBC radio 1. Echo pop is $7 on Amazon right now. I'm genuinely sorry you've lost this feature, I am frustrated for you.

[Jimmyj]

Very disappointed this feature has been removed. Will look to move to alexa

[Mattskeith]

I think we are all switching to Alexa. Google is constantly moving the goal post and I’m tired of playing. 

[IanMcG]

Sick of people telling us to use routines as an alternative. They are a TERRIBLE alternative. If I switch on a routine to play the radio and then ask my device to stop playing the radio it won't stop playing. 

[Matpanat]

This is definitely a reason for me to switch away from Google products to amazon ones. I cannot even find my normal morning news programme in routines - This is a downgrade.

[SCMI7Y]

Google assistant has pretty much become useless lately I will be switching away from Google to either Apple home or Amazon Alexa. Google has removed all features that made me choose them. 

[Queenmother]

We need to start reviewing all our affected products in the various review areas. 

[Jdeterdi]

Yup. Just got this alert for the first time a few days ago when I tried to set up a new one. (they obviously ran well past February 1st.)

While I will say it never worked as flawlessly as I feel like it should have, I'm really surprised (and disappointed) that the feature is being removed entirely. It's not like Google was paying licensing to play the song - it was a 'simple' time-activated call to the music service you've already integrated into your Google Home. BUMMER

[Fil70]

Hi Jdeterdi

i hear you along with many other Google Home owners. It just seems so unjustified that Google would implement this change making users have to use the roundabout and messy Routine option to achieve a similar result. 
we can only hope they see the error of their ways and hopefully reinstate the media alarm option.

[jdalegonzalez]

Sounds like people are moving to Alexa.  I'm hating Amazon because of the addition of ads to prime but maybe it's ok to use Alexa as an alarm.  Goodbye Google 

[Queenmother]

For under $20, it's more than worth just having an echo as a media alarm Clock. But the more I look at the Alexa app, the more I see how poorly designed the Home app is in comparison. Echo also sounds better as a speaker.