cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Replies are disabled for this topic. Start a new one or visit our Help Center.

Multiple devices responding at the same time

seknav
Community Member

Issue began week of December 20.

 

I've had multiple Google Home and Nest speakers in our home for years. Nothing has changed in the past 6 months. 2 weeks ago, multiple speakers are answering when the wake command is issued. I say 'Hey Google, what is 1+1?' and two or three speakers will respond with the information or action that has been requested. There are four speakers on the floor I'm on. One that I'm next to, and others in completely separate rooms respond. There is one in a bedroom (2nd gen Mini) and one in the bathroom (Nest Audio) which regularly go rogue. The other in another bedroom is silent.

 
I understand that upon hearing the wake command, multiple devices negotiate with each other to decide which will respond. In this case they don't seem to be following that procedure (the one in the other room or the bathroom jump in even though the one I'm standing next to is closest).
 
I've rebooted the devices and the wake sensitivity is already set to low.
 
Why is this happening and how can I resolve it?
 
I have read existing articles but this specific issue (multiple devices on the same network responding to one wake command) is not covered.
 
I asked this question in the Google Assistant community but was asked to post it here.
1 Recommended Answer

KiiFromGoogle
Community Manager (Admin)
Community Manager (Admin)

Hi everyone,

We recently worked with a Senior Product Manager on the Google Assistant team to write a blog about about what's happening when multiple devices respond to your Google Assistant requests. She shared some tips to help improve which device responds to requests overtime. Be sure to check out the blog post for all the detailsFAQs: Using Google Assistant and Multiple Devices.

 

While this thread is now closed, we started a new discussion about this topic to gather feedback. You can also submit feedback for the team through your devices at any time. 

 

Thanks! 

View Recommended Answer in original post

473 REPLIES 473

framola
Community Member

My pixel 4a broke and configured the new Pixel 6 yesterday with the latest updates.  The phone says I am running the latest.

Both phones (versions) did not help.  Once I selected the Continue Conversation, the behavior of the speakers immediately improved to near perfect.

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

It was probably a bug in the assistant settings then.  Just keep an eye out for any updates to the Google app if it happens again.  For your sake I really hope you're in the clear.  Who knows.  Maybe your solution is a magic bullet for Pixel phones at least.  You never know.  

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

For me continued conversation has never been turned off since  it was first introduced as a feature.  Many of us use it so I don't think it's a reliable solution unfortunately.  Congrats on the new Pixel 6 though.  😁  I'm sure it's a nice step up.  

 

Same, my continued conv. was already on. My pixel 6 is Android 12 last security update 1/1/2022, last system update 1/5/2022.

Not resetting bc I have 79 connected devices at that seems like a lot of work, so hopefully there is a fix soon bc google is super annoying at the moment.

 

 

79??

GodsRaven
Community Member

Mine is updated.  Solved nothing.

GodsRaven
Community Member

Nothing like that on my phone either.

GodsRaven
Community Member

My continued conversation is turned on, however.

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

Who here installed an update to their phones anytime between January 14th and now and had this issue crop up soon after?  That January security update rolled out to Pixel devices starting the 14th but didn't reach my Samsung until the 27th.  That could account for the wide variance in dates.  I had to look this up because Pixel phones usually get updates slightly faster.  

framola
Community Member

Aiden1, FYI - My phone states that the latest security update to the Pixel 6 was Jan 5th 2022.

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

That's your security patch level, right?  Do you know where to find that?  It should say either January or December.  If it states January then you're in the clear, if it says December you've still got one coming and might need to manually check, although I didn't think pixels had so much of a need for that.  I wouldn't install it if you aren't on the correct update just in case it breaks what you just did.  Unless someone says your solution works for them of course.  Also if you have no update, then there's no issue.  

 

akwildheart
Community Member

I've noticed today that my devices now seem to be working fine. I say "Hey Google" and I see both the speaker pair in the room that I'm in as well as my phone react but now only the speaker pair in the room actually responds as it always did before. The speakers in my other rooms are also remaining silent. I haven't done anything for it to do this. No Factory Reset or anything. My Pixel 5A is still showing the latest update to be Jan. 5th which is appropriately when I first noticed the problems. I also have Continued Conversations turned off. They seem to be working now but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Daveshu22
Community Member

Is this loss of functionality due to the Sonos lawsuit?

breakvalley
Community Member

For me, this morning it suddenly started working as intended. Don't know if there was some kind of update made by google?

Suddenly running firmware version 1.56.280498 on my Nest Hub 2.

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

For me they began to work properly yesterday evening(the 31st) after the Google app on my phone updated.  I did not factory reset the speakers at any point to attempt to fix this.  

AlfTupper
Community Member

Morning all. Happy to report that my devices are now working properly, since yesterday morning. On a whim I factory reset the Home on which the problem first presented. And immediately afterwards everything was working again and still is.  The problem originally presented on my Home utility room speaker responding to requests on the kitchen hub. At the time I noticed a message asking whether the correct device had responded but chose to ignore it. 

I could have been a little more empirical about my fix yesterday, but as I say I did it on a whim and instinct. My bad. 

dbelk80
Community Member

Looks like something might be happening server side. I'm only getting a single response this morning. 🤞🤞

ATLJeff
Community Member

I find the same thing (11:30 a.m. EST).

I asked Google to cross my fingers for me, but it didn't know how to do that. 😉🤖🤞🏻

Googlbreakgoogl
Community Member

It appears to be working correctly now.  No time to celebrate though.  I am sure Google will be secretly pushing another issue very soon.  Is there a place where you can find information on what caused this problem in the first place?

I was trying to figure that out too.  My hunch is that an update to the speaker FW is the issue or needs to fixed the issue. (Not the Android OS of the phone, etc.)

This article describes what the current FW is for the device and how to find it: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7365257?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid

This article states that a device reset would 'force' and update by (instead of it automatically downloading/installing it at its pleasure. Note for a forced update, a device factory reset is required: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7071791?hl=en  

(Another article I read said that unplugging the speaker for a bit, then plugging it back in also forces the speaker to check for updates. I have not verified as all my speakers are running the latest. If this works, it would save a good amount of time.)

 

Thank you framola!

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

Unplug ALL speakers and bring them up one by one usually solves problems.  I had a really good agent help me once.  Took a long ass time to do but it forced every device to update.  Since they "talk" to each other software-wise which I had not been previously aware of, this was to keep them from catching the error from one another.  Yes, this can happen.  Who knew, right?  When you power cycle, let one come up at a time.  It works much better if you're trying to clear a persistent error.  I left everything unplugged but one.  Rebooted it.  And moved on to the next, then so on.  This was for a different issue but should work in this case too.  

All updated still broken!!

Maybe the rollout hasn't rolled to me yet. 

Although, I am getting message on HUB screen "Is this the device you wanted to answer?"

framola
Community Member

Did you try enabling 'Continued Conversation' with your shared devices?  That side stepped my autonomous speaker issue.

Shrinsys
Community Member

Yes, set and reset. Still wrong device answering. 

Rick91
Community Member

I am having the same issue. I called costumer service and factory reseted all devices last night and it all started working until this afternoon. The issue came back and multiple speakers reply at once (i do not get the msg on the Hub asking if the right device responded anymore). I seem to have the latest firmware on all devices, and there’s no available updates for the google home app. 

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

Have you tried checking for an update to the Google app?  Or Google assistant app if your device is on iOS?  Updating that solved it for me.  

Rick91
Community Member

I noticed last night that there was an update to the Google app on iOS, so I have installed that. It seemsed to be working fine  this morning but now its even worse... the wrong speaker responds AND i'm not able to ask google to play music on spotify.. it always says ' sorry, something went wrong, when you are ready, give it another try'... I can only play music if I manually turn it on on the app, but then I am not able to use any voice commands (like 'skip' or 'pause') nor the touch controls on the speakers work (e.g. music does not pause when pressing the 'pausing' on the speaker itself)... They are completely unusable at the moment. 

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

Routines are now acting up on mine.  Not sure what's going on.  They used to work before the multiple speakers responding error began.  Seems like we're jumping from one fire into another these days.  Have you tried unlinking Spotify and relinking it?

Rick91
Community Member

Yeah, tried all of that to no success… sometimes it does work, but is very random… and sometimes i ask to transfer music to another speaker and instead it increases to maximum volume! In general, all voice commands are now very hit and miss.

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

Mine are cutting off their responses(mostly on nest minis, both 1st and 2nd gen), not running scheduled routines.  I haven't tried using Spotify yet.  After reading about your experience I'm a bit afraid to now.  Speaker going to 100% volume in an apartment with my neighbors to contend with doesn't seem like fun were that to happen.  Ugh.  

Gigabomb
Community Member

So far mine seem to work after my latest Google app update, if that is even related.

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

It's related alright.  The assistant on the phone is integrated into the other devices response.  It's why they can't function without the Google app on the phone(Android) or Google assistant app(iOS).  You cannot have simply the Google Home app.  

framola
Community Member

True, it is required. But you have the option to eliminate Google assistant from the from response to Google home queries.  Eliminating the google assistant from the issue does not help.  Updating the phone OS alone most likely does not help.

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

I agree the phone OS is likely not the cause unless it caused a compatibility issue with the Google assistant app on affected phones.  That I could see happening.  Compatibility was a big issue with many apps and Android 12 so it's not outside the realm of possibility.    You'd think Google wouldn't invite such an issue given they should know their own products better than a third party would.  We'll probably never know though.  

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

The Google assistant is absolutely needed for my speakers to be used.  I can turn personal results off but as far as linked services and other devices, that's all controlled through the assistant itself.  It's absolutely in no way optional.  You cannot remove or disable that app on your phone and expect the speakers to work.  

framola
Community Member

Absolutely. The point is that the speaker FW needs needs attention, not just the assistant. I point this out as the spirit of prior messaged focused on phone updates.  In this issue, the phone and every speaker must be treated equally.

Aiden1
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

Right.  It's just weird.  In my case, the firmware for each device was already up to date because they had been factory reset just the day before.  It was actually what triggered the bug for me.  Nothing's changed in the FW on any of my speakers.  The only thing that's changed for me is the Google app.  Weird, right?  And the error is gone nonetheless.

How do you eliminate Google assistant from the from responses to Google home queries on your phone?  I have the note 9 and it is the most annoying thing having to listen to the sound it makes when it starts listening.