"Sorry, I don't understand." is the answer to certain follow-up questions?

[DanPin]

I've been experiencing this problem lately. I have Voice Match set up correctly, but the Assistant on my Nest Mini is refusing to play answers to certain follow-up questions that relate to the same topic the initial question I asked is based on (i.e., the prompt 'I also found an answer to this question [...]'), when it should know the answer actually exists. The only way to get around this problem is to memorize the follow-up question, and then say it afterwards.

For instance, I ask Google, 'How dangerous are servals?', and it plays an answer. It then offers me to hear the answer to another question on that topic, 'Is a serval a dangerous pet?' When I say 'Yes', it throws the error "Sorry, I don't understand." and does not play the answer.

I'm not very sure what's causing this. I know for a fact I said 'Yes' clearly enough for it to process my response, and it should play the answer, not throw an error.

[Dan_A]

Hi DanPin,

This is not the experience we want you to have, let me help you. A few questions: when did your issue begin? Were there any recent changes made?

It would help a lot if you could do a sequential reboot first: 

1. Unplug the power cord of your router, followed by your Nest speakers.
2. Plug them back in after 3 minutes.
3. Restarting your phone might also help.

For more information about filters and restricted contents, see this link.

Let me know how it goes.

Best,

Dan

[DanPin]

Dan_A,

It started happening like many months ago after Google cleared a bug where there were almost endless counts of the 'I also found an answer to this question [...]' prompts, some of them which also led to the response "Sorry, I don't have any information about that. But I found something else. Do you want to know [...]".

Unfortunately, I don't think the solutions to the problem would help, as it actually has to do with the Assistant API implemented on the smart device. It probably thinks that the question is way too uncommon, but again, there's actually an answer to that. You just have to take the shortcut.

[DanPin]

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For more information about filters and restricted contents, see this link.

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I do not have content filters enabled. What seems to be going on is that it is not fetching an expected answer to certain follow-up questions due to some lookup error, even though the answer is available. So, if I memorize the question after it fails with "Sorry, I don't understand", and then say it afterwards, it will play an answer.

[DanPin]

I recently opened a ticket at the IssueTracker (https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/281266697), hoping that this bug finally receives attention. However, I'm not sure if this is ideal for general product support.

[DanPin]

Unfortunately, with this behavior, it totally decreases the quality of the Google Assistant service on smart speakers. It's really annoying to see how everything has changed.

[DanPin]

Following some research, it sounds like this behavior is occurring because the answer (or response) to those questions is malformed. This is probably why Google Assistant is tricking users into believing that an answer to such questions exists when there isn't one available, but taking the workaround by memorizing the question and saying it afterwards circumvents the issue.