Phone call tree menu - how to press number on the keypad (Press 1 etc doesn't work anymore)

[itoldusoandso]

I used to tell the speaker "PRESS 1" etc.. during the call when going through a phone tree menu. 

Now this doesn't work anymore. Now matter how I say it, slowly, fast, yelling, quiet, nice or with threat (I did threaten the speaker to kick it out of the window too), it just doesn't recognize this as a valid command. 

Instead it either starts some stupid thing like search on the web or tells me it didn't understand me. It's stupid to try to do that and fight with the speaker during the phone call because it messes with the phone call so I end up calling from normal line.

One of the issue I find, Google Home has issue with speed, when I say Google Home, it takes a while for it to listen to me when I am on the call. Overall the experience with Google Home Mini 1st has gone south and it is practically unusable for making phone calls.

So I wonder if this is a general issue or the speaker Mini 1 issue. 

[Princesss]

Hello itoldusoandso,

Thanks for bringing this up.

We're sorry to hear that you're experiencing this with your Google Nest speaker. Since it used to work before, could you send us a short video clip while commanding the Google Nest speaker while making a phone call? Also, let's perform a complete reset to your device and see if this will make any difference on its behavior. Here's how to perform a reset: Factory reset Google Nest or Home speakers or displays

Let me know how it goes.

Best,

Princess

[itoldusoandso]

Hi, you are asking me to reset speaker. I have done reset already. I have sacrificed my time to reset of the speakers I have , I have 4 of them. It's not like I have nothing else to do because it does take time to get it back setup.

The problem is the speaker doesn't want to "press 1 or 2 etc." When I say "Hey Google, Press 2", it will give me websites with companies names called Pres Two coffee house, or 2'oclock press printing etc..

So instead pressing 2 to get through the tree menu, it either gives me search from internet, sometimes it says "sorry I don't understand", but it is mostly internet search where it looks for businesses with names like Press 3 or Press 4 etc. 

And that is while I am on a phone call calling USPS etc.

So first of all I want to confirm the function still works PRESS # to get through the phone menu. Can you confirm it? Does it work with any speaker? Any limitations of where is this available? I am in Canada, maybe not available here?

I have 4 of these speakers, so it's not like this would be specific issues with this speaker. All of them stopped accepting Press # commands.

And it is NOT related to this:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Have-several-Mini-1-speakers-1st-gen-an...

I am using the speakers for translations between languages and I noticed the recognition got worse since the update, I suspect since the dual language function was enabled.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I strongly suspect, these cheaper speakers are no longer supported by Google and they dropped support on it, since the quality of the microphone isn't that good, it wasn't fine-tuned for dual language and the software just got less sensitive on these 1st gen speakers.

This wouldn't be such an issue if I was able to customize different phrase for Hey Google. I suspect it is all inter-related.

[H-h]

I am also experiencing this problem too! This shows that Google doesn't care about us.

[beland66]

Same issue 

[H-h]

Pretty sure that Alexa can also do this without any issues.

[itoldusoandso]

Oh, perfect. Problem solved. I bought an Amazon Alexa speaker in a thrift store for 3 dollars. Yes, I can confirm the Alexa speaker works with the tree menu. Although there are a few annoyances with Alexa, one is minor, the other is significant. First is you need to enable Communications in Alexa settings and that is a half-hour trip through the app and support pages, then good luck because you need to provide you cell phone to Amazon and verify it and then the second issue is Alexa only calls numbers that are in your contact list. Even if you disabled access to your phone book on your mobile device when setting up), it still ends up saving the numbers you call in Alexa phone book. Every time it calls a number not in your phonebook, it asks first to save the number. 

I suspect the reason Google has done quietly away with the phone tree menu is because Google doesn't want you to use the phone to make phone calls other than personal (person-to-person). To be honest, I did use Google Phone in the past for work too, perfect for those webinar meetings. But I think Google is not interested in that.

Similarly Amazon has no issue with that but they ask you to save number to contact list first, so if you use Google Phone to make those calls while you are travelling, forget it, it can be annoying.

Anyways, at least it works.

To avoid verifying your number you can always use SMSpool to verify with that instead.

[Muddi]

Hello itoldusoandso,

Sorry for the delays. We're sad to see you go. We hope we can make it up to you in the future. Send us a message if you change your mind.

Cheers,

Muddi