help me sleep

[macleod0722]

On January 22/23, I started a thread regarding the looping of the white noise when I told my Nest Hub simply to play white noise. It would play until I turned it off, but would loop every hour. This was annoying and interrupting my sleep at times. Someone responded to use "help me sleep" (Tell help me sleep to play white noise for 8 hours.) This worked!!

Now Google is telling me that "help me sleep" is going away in June. I need to know what will (or has) replace it so that the white noise will play all night without looping.  (Help me sleep plays brown noise and I'm OK with that. But I don't want ocean or nature sounds.)

[Princesss]

Hi macleod0722,

Thanks for visiting the Community.

Could you please tell us where did you get that news? White noise together with other relaxing sounds remains to be working as of the moment. Could you please tell us the exact commands you're using?

You might also find this link helpful: https://goo.gle/3AZnI7l

Best,

Princess

[macleod0722]

Is it possible for you to refer to my thread from January? I believe you are the one who was finally able to help me with the command that worked. Yes, Google Nest will play white noise (with the simple command to play white noise) ... but it loops (fades out/in) every hour. This is VERY annoying - and interrupts my sleep rather than helping it.  You told me to use the command, "Tell help me sleep to play white noise for 8 hours." That has worked beautifully (except that it, technically, plays brown noise). Now, every time I give that command, Google tells me, "just so you know, help me sleep will no longer be available after June 13". I understand that this is a "first world problem", but it is very important to me ... and has been very frustrating.

[Chaos24]

I can’t find anything anywhere about why they’re getting rid of the “help me sleep” function and truly one of the only reasons I got this was for this very function lol. Anything else I’ve tried has very obvious loops that wake me up too. I saw an old post somewhere saying they were trying to incorporate Fitbit and the calm app? I can’t remember where I saw that but I also saw that those features come with a price..

[macleod0722]

It is really annoying. Why aren't there more people concerned? 

[macleod0722]

Do you have an answer for me yet?

[PaulMatula]

White noise is not a suitable alternative to brown noise for sleeping. It is far too harsh and sharp to sleep with. Since Google has not added brown noise or any suitable alternative to access Assistant apps like Help Me Sleep I'll be looking to take my business elsewhere. Google continues to kill the services I like, but now they're taking away my sleep aids. I'm done.

[macleod0722]

I understand - and that does make sense. But, at this point, I'd be happy with white noise if it didn't loop (fade out/in) every hour. It has affected my sleep the last 2 nights and, as you said, has made the Google Nest virtually useless and a waste of money. Plus, their advertising is false. They don't offer continuous white noise when the volume changes every hour.

CC @Princesss 

[awk627]

Hi!  @Princesss Just wanted to report I'm experiencing the same thing. On my Google Home, we command "Hey Google, ask Help Me Sleep to play brown noise for 10 hours". It's also part of our goodnight routine with Google Home. The last two weeks, we've been getting the message that Help Me Sleep was going away in June. But last night it was suddenly just... gone. With no warning. It's been the best white/brown noise sleep solution we had found after a lot of research, and I am so disappointed. Hoping Google just didn't know anyone loved it and would consider bringing this feature back? 

If not, would be very interested to know of any plans to replace it. 

[awk627]

Here's info on what specific commands were apparently  disabled: https://assistant.google.com/services/a/uid/000000995c709e7d?hl=en-US

[macleod0722]

Yes @Princesss, according to my calendar, last night was May 22, NOT June 13. I slept horribly because of the fade out/in every hour. What is Google going to do about this? I've been researching other noise apps and have not found one that will work with the Google Assistant.

[jbreeden21]

hi @Princesss - i am experiencing the same with the app "help me sleep" which was supposed to be enabled until June 13 according to the verbal message from our google assistant. agree with the other posters here that the built in "sleep sound" solutions provided by google are not adequate because of the variety provided as well as the looping issue. please bring back help me sleep!

[MTS1]

"Just so you know" -- Another disappointed person  - I only use my Nest for sleep sounds and without Help Me Sleep or an alternative I have another piece of equipment for the electronices recyclers. Dear Google: please find adequate replacements for the things you are taking away before taking them away.

[Theorygame]

One more to add to the pile- "Help Me Sleep" was one of the few useful things about the Google devices.  Removing something like this that couldn't have been causing any problems or costing Google any money is par for the course when dealing with Google.  They couldn't care less about how people actually use their services.

[macleod0722]

I couldn't agree more! This morning the assistant told me that they are also taking away "AnyList" - and app that I paid for when I got my hubs because it came highly recommended as the list app that works best with the Google Assistant. I spent time setting it up (rearranging lists, categories etc.) and I now LOVE it ... and they're taking that away too. They've reduced my hubs to nothing more than clocks and photo displays.

[LucidWright]

I just wanted to chime into google and say this was a stupid choice. 

the majority of my time using my google nest is at night. It conveniently does everything else my cell does but poorly now. 

Its literally just a bunch of buttons now. 

The “ why dont you use a b c d e f  noise“ people can just chill out. Everyone is different. Have some empathy.