Multiple devices responding at the same time

[seknav]

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.

[GodsRaven]

Are they though?  Did you get rid of yours?  Are people no longer buying their stuff?  Who sees these complaints?  Only people who already have their systems.  That's why they have this, to keep the complaints internal.  Think about it.

[GodsRaven]

I have 2.4 only and have the problem.  It's a complete mess.  Jake doesn't know anything.  He's here just to act as if Google is listening, but they're not.t

[GodsRaven]

He's not going to help you.  No one is going to help.  Google is simply a failure.

[jcolson]

Jake, any chance you could get Google to actually acknowledge this issue?

[GodsRaven]

I'm thinking not likely.  They've ignored all of our complaints for at least 8 months on here.  They've ignored our complaints when we call in.  I've actually been one who called in and was told, just reset devices.  When it didn't work, they had no answer except to reset again.  Bottom line is they don't care.  They're making money hand over fist.  Unless we go to another platform and start really telling people about how Google is a mess, and affect their bottom line, they won't fix it.  

[GodsRaven]

Not likely.  I think he may actually be a bot.

[Greeneyedred]

Yes Jake. We do. Problem is NOT resolved

[GodsRaven]

ROFLOL!!!  That's literally all I can do is laugh at your question.  People are complaining EVERYWHERE about these issues.  You don't help.  You just give the same answer, "reset it.". Go away.  You're useless, less than useless.  Go tell Google to fix their problem.  I hope you're not getting paid to "help", cuz you fail miserably.

[Wolflingdaddy18]

Hey Jake! Have you read ANY of this thread in the last 5.5 months since your post? Can you, or anyone, provide any assistance that is helpful? Can someone be honest and tell us if this is even fixable? I have a feeling it's not.

[BrownRocker]

I deleted the affected devices them readded them to my Home App. Everything is working fine for me now. I did this over the weekend. 

[GodsRaven]

Yeah, well give it a few days and you'll be pulling your hair out again.  

[GodsRaven]

They don't care.  These "Community Specialists" may as well be bots.  They come in, ask the same questions, give the same answers, and now they tell you to fill out a form and say they'll refer you to ...IDK, some 600 mile long Google line up or st, and close the thread.  Totally useless.

[skunkapekiller]

are you gaslighting us Jake? seriously?

[Binchicago]

I'm having this problem. Been having it for a long time. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned: I have a mix of devices. Two are google nest mini, one a lenovo clock (though that one does not seem to be the source issue) and one a lenovo smart display. It seems the display always responds first and the Google nests never know the display answered, even though I have their responsiveness set at - 2.

[Juni]

Hi everyone,

I hope you all are doing well. Our team is aware of this behavior and is still looking into it. We will update this thread once we have news to share.

Thanks, 

Juni

[musclebob]

I'm experiencing this issue across my two Nest Mini's and my Android phone.

Google Assistant doubles up on everything. Timers, alarms, answering questions. Sometimes it'll even give two separate answers for the weather.

I've tried factory resetting the Google Nests but it has not helped.

[musclebob]

Pretty obvious that yes, this is still broken on the 19th June 2023

[ktiedt]

Might as well just repeat “google doesn’t care” to the tune of Scotty doesn’t know the days… even their support “managers” never respond when they claim they will resolve your issues. 

[Frankiel2]

Correct! Instead of Google saying “Somthing went wrong, try again in a few seconds” after it actually completes the task requested (well, sometimes)… it should say “Google doesn’t give a **bleep** about this product any longer, try Alexa”

[musclebob]

Leave a 1 star review of the Google Home app in the Play Store.

[musclebob]

I just gave the Google Home app a 1 star rating on the Play Store including my reasons why. That would be my recommendation. There's also a developer contact email.

[ktiedt]

The developers don’t care either. Spent 8 months fighting with the developer and mangers for the battery camera models and they just effectively said **bleep** off leave us alone the bugs aren’tbeing fixed. 

[Frankiel2]

If I didn’t already invest in 10 Google/Neat speakers, I would just **bleep**can them and them and use Alexa.  I own 2 Alexa’s that work near perfectly. 

[Juni]

Hi all, 

Thanks for your patience. The team has been investigating this behavior and we have some more info for you:

When multiple devices hear your request, multiple devices might activate, but only one should respond. If multiple devices are responding, you might have devices set up on different Google accounts.

- Follow these steps to set up Google Home and all of your devices on the same Google account: https://goo.gle/3PuKa0R

- If all your devices are on the same Google Account, please send us a feedback report to help with our investigation: https://goo.gle/3r6emoT

If the wrong device is responding, it's because Google has to chose the best device to respond based on a few factors, like how close it is and the type of request. Occasionally though, it’s not easy for Assistant to decide which device fulfills your question the best. In those cases, we recommend:
 

- Moving closer to the device

- Using another method to trigger the assistant

- Mentioning the name of the device in your request (e.g. play music on Bedroom Speaker).

We want to learn and improve the Assistant’s behavior over time, so if you ever get a notification that another device responded, please utilize the "Wrong Device" button to share that feedback with us.

Regards,

Juni

[ktiedt]

ROFL more of the same bs from when the product was released. They are supposed to improve not get worse… 

[Gigabomb]

Do you guys even read these forums and what people are saying?  It has ZERO to do with multiple Google accounts.  This forum should be more than enough feedback for your "developers" to review.  

Issue again: "Hey Google turn off lights" means all 6 devices go "Turning off lights" instead of one located nearest.  Unless someone decided to create 5 more Google accounts without me knowing, snuck into my house and paired the devices to those accounts, and laughed as they snuck back out, you are wrong.

[laffingleigh]

Hi Juni,

Can you clarify how to utilize the “Wrong Device” button on non-screened devices? I only have one device with a screen that I’ve noticed this feature. I use it as often as possible, but is often not that specific device that is the problem.

[musclebob]

Hi Juni,

I think the way accounts are handled between Google apps on android devices might be part of the problem here. Let me give you an example:

I have two Google accounts. One is a free Gmail account which I use for Google Home and my Nest devices, and the other is a Google Workspace (G Suite/Whatever it's now called) account which I use for work. My Google Workspace account is also what I use for Chrome and all my bookmarks.

I'm logged into both accounts on my android phone, however I had to switch accounts in Google Chrome. Unfortunately, this isn't as simple as it should be. Unlike Chrome desktop you can't just switch between the two. You have to 'Sign Out and turn off sync'. No idea why as the list of accounts is literally presented to you on this screen. Anyway, in doing this and logging into my other account in the Chrome App, it also changed which account I was logged into in Google Search and Google Home. This affected all my Nests without me realising. Changing back to my Gmail in Google Home and Google Search is easy enough, and fortunately doesn't effect the Chrome app. However, this whole process could be handled much better by the eco-system with a good user experience review.

[Wolflingdaddy18]

I don't know if these same old useless responses work for anyone. If these "specialists" had read any of this thread, they'd see that all these things have been tried with no luck, including by me. 

I have responded with a solution that has worked for the last six months for me, but I don't know if it's helped anyone else. 

[Voncronic]

Can you just let me call them something else???? 

if I could say “hey bedroom” or “hey den” or “hey Dennis” or anything other than “hey google”, that would easily solve this

[Dan_A]

Hi Voncronic,

Thanks for letting us know about other options. We're already on top of this; hang tight. We'll be sharing updates here in the community as soon as we have them.

Kind regards,

Dan

[ktiedt]

ROFL sure it’s been literal years but suddenly a fix is coming soon…

”9 years later…”

[Voncronic]

can you please provide a timeline of of some sort? I am getting close to trying a different product cause this is infuriating

[DIvers]

You've got to be kidding I have to factory reset my phone and my Google home mini and everything else Google my TV my Google everything that's bull**bleep**! 

[Gigabomb]

I never ended up having to factory anything, after one of the updates issue was gone.

[jcolson]

I wish I was that fortunate.  No updates have fixed the issue here.  Instead I just have the mic turned off on several devices so that they don't try and compete.

[GodsRaven]

Unfortunately I don't have that option.  I have them so I can use them in each room.   I'm disabled and use them for various reasons.  Besides, we shouldn't have to turn the mics off.  Obviously that means these aren't working properly.

[GodsRaven]

Wish mine would do that.

[GodsRaven]

Good for you.  Not one other person here has been that lucky.  In fact, it's getting worse for all of us.  Do you work for Google by any chance?

[GodsRaven]

And...you have to keep resetting it every few days, because resetting it fixes it, but only temporarily.  After a day or two, sometimes several days, it starts all over again.