Nest speakers or Google Assistant has hearing issues?

[LFS]

I have 3 nest minis and a nest wifi point. Recently the speakers start to ignore my requests. These are the scenarios:

• "Ok google", speaker plays tone and goes off.
• "Ok google", assistant starts to "think" and drops request.

I often have to repeat my requests 3 to 4 time minimum, often to the point I'm shouting at the speaker. Sounds weird but frustrating. Not sure if issues happen due to the latest software preview.

Anyone encountered same issues?

[Dave90]

Yes! I have also started to have exactly the same issue. I also raised this on here yesterday - https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Nest-Hubs-respond-in-wrong-room-or-not-...

It's really frustrating and seems to have no pattern as to wherever or not it will respond or not. I checked in the web history and you can see the successful requests, but the ones where it listens then drops it are not there at all. At first I thought maybe it was responding in another room as that also happens more now, but it doesn't seem to be the case. For me I am using Mk2 and Mk1 Nest Hubs mainly, but also have a couple of speakers, a Lenovo clock and a mini.

[LFS]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this issue. Another issue that is happening frequently is the assistant's inability to understand words that it used to understand. For example, when I said "full brightness" previously, all my bulbs will react. These days, when I say "full brightness" it will reply with all sorts of unrelated replies, like the nearest electrical shops.

Before I forget, the response by the assistant is also very laggy lately. The requests can take up to a minute to be executed.

[Dave90]

Yes, now you mention it I do believe it has been deteriorating slowly like this for a while now.
I did find some other threads of these types of issues dating back to around December onwards. What I wonder is while it is clearly affect a lot of people, is it affecting all users? I've seen various speculation from the loss of the Sonos case and the reworking of the backend to less computer time dedicated per query as being possible causes. I find it hard to believe that it is anything to do with local network configuration, etc.

[LFS]

I believe it's more of backend issue at Google. The assistant suddenly cannot decipher my words nor my requests. Maybe they have some issues with their algorithms for new features that caused regressions.

[Jeff]

Hi, everyone.

As of right now we haven't found any issues with Assistant, but there are definitely factors that can alter how well it's working. One of the most common ways to improve your performance on a specific device is to check the hotword sensitivity settings. This article here runs through several things to check if you're having any Assistant response troubles, including that hotword sensitivity I mentioned: https://bit.ly/3fNUvCp.

Take a look at the article and see if you can sort out what might be your issue there. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks.

[Jeff]

Hey, Dave90.

That's...quite confusing, I'm sure. Have you gone through and done the retrain process on your voice. Here are the steps for that.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Home app .
2. At the top right, tap your Profile picture or initial Assistant settings Hey Google & Voice Match Other devices.
3. Tap Teach your Assistant your voice again Retrain.

Give that a quick try, even if you've gone through the setup process once more.

Thanks.

[Dave90]

Hi Jeff,

Yes i did this already, even completely deleting the voice match profile. Several times in fact. Just to recap:

- I disabled Voice match and deleted all voice match data from Google servers and all of the above stay the same.
- I set Voice match back up with new data and everything is still the same

Thanks, Dave

[Dave90]

Since, on instructions from support, I have removed all devices from the home and reset every single one (not a small task). I added 2 of them back and immediately exactly the same issue with transcribing what I say but not responding when I speak in my normal voice.
I added a third display in the Kitchen and again, in addition to the above the same issue of the Living room speaker responding even though the sensitivity settings are at the lowest and it is impossible it can hear me.

So even when deleting everything and the account showing empty, clearly some data is not being deleted which is disturbing in itself. And of course the exact same issue persists.

[Jeff]

Hey, everyone.

I am hearing that there might be a bug with Assistant right now and it's being worked on by an internal team. As I learn more, I can update things here, but we have people on it now. Thanks for hanging in there on this.

[Jeff]

Hey, all.

I wanted to follow up real fast to see if you were still seeing troubles here. If you are, please let me know and we can check things out more closely on your setups.

Thanks.

[Patrick8]

The main issue with assistant seems to be gone. Yay!  Also Google now loads available lights faster as well. (Also, yay!)

[Jeff]

I'm happy to hear you saw some resolution, Patrick8. I know the Assistant issues were being worked on and it appears that things are clearing up. Thanks for checking in and letting us know.

If others are still seeing the same issues, let us know that too.

Thanks.

[LFS]

Hi Jeff, I am still facing intermittent issues of Google Assistant ignoring my verbal routine instructions or simply hearing the wrong things.

[Jeff]

Hey, all.

It's been a while since we had an update. I haven't seen any solution shared yet, and I'm still waiting on news of a fix, but I wanted to check in to see if anything has changed on your end at all. If you've seen improvement or any additional issues, please let me know.

Thanks,

- Jeff

[LFS]

Hi Jeff, issues still happen intermittently. Also, selected speakers kept disconnecting from wifi network after latest firmware update. 

[Muddi]

Hey folks,

Apologize for the delays. Chiming in to ensure everything is covered here. To eliminate network issues, please try setting up your device using a mobile hotspot. Please note that you will need two mobile devices for this setup (one will serve as a router and the other to be used to set up your Google Home/Nest device). 

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Muddi]

Hey folks,

It's been some time since this thread was updated. Does anyone here need assistance?

Cheers,

Muddi

[Jake]

Hey all,

I wanted to check in, and ensure everything is working properly. Please let me know if you are still having trouble, as I will be locking the thread in 24 hours due to inactivity.

Best regards,
Jake

[Dave90]

Hi Jeff,

My issues are also the same. I have a ticket open with support but they have not got back to me in a couple of weeks. 

[Dave90]

I have some additional information after doing some testing -

- The assistant does not have the issue when anyone else speaks
- If I change my voice slightly so I am not immediately recognisable then it works as expected
- Even if it does not work, it recognises what I say when speaking in my normal voice and transcribes it correctly, it just fails to carry out the action at all or responds in wrong room.
- I disabled Voice match and deleted all voice match data from Google servers and all of the above stay the same.
- I set Voice match back up with new data and everything is still the same

In conclusion the profile for my voice appears to be corrupted somehow, strangely even if I delete all of my data regarding the voice profile it displays the same symptoms. Is it really deleted as promised?

[Patrick8]

I have been having issues for the past few days as well.  After the "try again in a few seconds" response, and waiting a couple of seconds, I can issue command after command, and assistant will respond correctly. With a "cold" command, it may process extremely slowly, or not at all.  When this started, the command would get executed, but a few seconds later, "something went wrong". Now it rarely works without repeating the command