Sorry, I can't answer that, try asking something else

[SeanAnderson]

Recently we have noticed that our Google Mini doesn't answer questions, responding "sorry, I can't answer that, try asking something else", a couple of examples that we have just tried

• What is a computation?
• Explain a computation
• What is a concrete noun?

The kids use Google Mini as a supportive resource for their schoolwork (and know that they should not plagiarise answers) and are finding it frustrating that they are not getting responses to questions that aren't much more than a dictionary lookup.

Has something changed at Google?

Is there a setting that needs to be changed?

[luciaaa]

Hi, @SeanAnderson,

Thank you so much for reaching out to the community. I’m truly sorry the Google Nest speaker is not responding to the questions. I’m happy to assist you!

To provide you with the best assistance, please provide the following information:

• When did the inconvenience start?
• Has the Google Assistant been able to answer similar questions previously?
• Can the Google Assistant respond to other questions or commands?

In the meantime, you might try asking your question with a specific website reference. For example, you could say, "Hey Google, what is a concrete noun according to Wikipedia?"

Additionally, for further information about Google Assistant, you can refer to this article: What you can ask Google Assistant. 

Please let me know how it goes.

Best regards.

Ana

[Mr-Case]

I'm having the same issue. 
But it only seems to affect the nest hubs. My nest mini still give me an answer then the nest hub won't with the exact same question. More intriguing is that it seems to only happen with recognized voice profile. When someone, not me ask the hub, they get an answer. I'm suspecting something funny going on with voice recognition.

[Mr-Case]

Ok @SeanAnderson  i did some digging. i have a filter on the nest hubs to limit response to family friendly answers only. Turning it off get assistant to answer normally. It's in teh digital wellbeing settings.  So somehow it appears that google has decided that 80% of my questions won't result in a family friendly answer. Did someone crank up the filter threshold? I don't think questions like "how is wind created" can't be answered in a family friendly way.  It's either an omission/bug when they did some update or censorship is going crazy.

[jenniffert]

Hi @Mr-Case,

Thank you for posting in the community! 

I understand how inconvenient it is when your Google assistant doesn't respond to your questions. I'd be happy to help!

I value the information you provided and the workaround you made. This can definitely help many users in the community. To help us investigate this further, please submit feedback directly to our developer team. Your feedback is valuable and helps us improve our products and experience for everyone.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Best regards,

Jenniffer

[SeanAnderson]

Thank you very much for your feedback back - this is appreciated and yes, seems to be the case for us, too. The mini used to answer all questions previously (obviously in a family friendly way) and then out of the blue it changed to this issue. Like you, we have removed the setting for family friendly and it's answering again.

With young kids in the house, I would prefer to have some filtering and I can't imagine we would start asking website specific questions ~ as a technical person, yes I know the main websites that would provide me the best answers, but my kids won't.