12-26-2021 11:19 AM - edited 01-05-2022 03:02 PM
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.
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08-29-2023 11:19 AM
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 details: FAQs: 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!
01-31-2022 05:21 PM
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.
01-31-2022 05:25 PM
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.
01-31-2022 06:43 PM - edited 01-31-2022 06:45 PM
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.
01-31-2022 07:17 PM
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.
01-31-2022 07:20 PM
79??
07-23-2022 05:38 PM
Mine is updated. Solved nothing.
07-23-2022 05:37 PM
Nothing like that on my phone either.
07-23-2022 05:40 PM
My continued conversation is turned on, however.
01-31-2022 05:21 PM
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.
01-31-2022 05:24 PM
Aiden1, FYI - My phone states that the latest security update to the Pixel 6 was Jan 5th 2022.
01-31-2022 05:34 PM - edited 01-31-2022 05:35 PM
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.
01-31-2022 07:16 PM
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.
01-31-2022 09:16 PM
Is this loss of functionality due to the Sonos lawsuit?
01-31-2022 10:54 PM
For me, this morning it suddenly started working as intended. Don't know if there was some kind of update made by google?
01-31-2022 11:09 PM
Suddenly running firmware version 1.56.280498 on my Nest Hub 2.
02-01-2022 05:45 AM
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.
02-01-2022 01:27 AM
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.
02-01-2022 06:55 AM
Looks like something might be happening server side. I'm only getting a single response this morning. 🤞🤞
02-01-2022 08:36 AM
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. 😉🤖🤞🏻
02-01-2022 08:45 AM
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?
02-01-2022 09:07 AM - edited 02-01-2022 09:32 AM
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.)
02-01-2022 09:29 AM
Thank you framola!
02-01-2022 01:00 PM
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.
02-01-2022 09:24 AM
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?"
02-01-2022 09:29 AM
Did you try enabling 'Continued Conversation' with your shared devices? That side stepped my autonomous speaker issue.
02-01-2022 10:49 AM
Yes, set and reset. Still wrong device answering.
02-01-2022 10:56 AM
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.
02-01-2022 12:52 PM
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.
02-02-2022 08:18 AM
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.
02-02-2022 09:15 AM
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?
02-02-2022 04:05 PM
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.
02-02-2022 04:57 PM
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.
02-01-2022 11:10 AM
So far mine seem to work after my latest Google app update, if that is even related.
02-01-2022 12:50 PM
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.
02-01-2022 12:59 PM
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.
02-01-2022 01:18 PM
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.
02-01-2022 01:24 PM
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.
02-01-2022 01:31 PM
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.
02-01-2022 01:37 PM - edited 02-01-2022 01:38 PM
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.
02-02-2022 08:05 PM
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.