Thought Bubbles with Thumbs Up/Down Icon Pop Up During Streaming on Chromecast with Google TV

[Dizylily]

Hi,

I got a Chromecast with Google TV device last month. While streaming episodes on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Viki, etc., suddenly in the middle of streaming video a thought bubble will pop up over a character's head with either a Thumbs Up or a Thumbs Down icon. Highly random. May happen more than once in a single episode, then go several episodes and not happen at all. The video continues streaming, but these random thought bubble icons are distracting and intrusive. It only appears when using the Chromecast device, and since it happens across all channels, it seems like it's not coming from a weird setting specific to Amz, NetFilx, etc.. I've scoured the Chromecast device settings, but can't figure out what to toggle off to make it quit.

Any suggestions? I'd much appreciate it!

[Kimy]

Hi Dizylily,

Thanks for posting here in the Google Nest Community. Based on your description, it pops out randomly on any content in any app. It doesn’t interrupt the show, but it kind of intervenes or blocks certain views as it pops out. This is quite odd since the Chromecast device itself has no such feature. It depends on the user to like a certain show, which is then the basis of the future recommendations as per the algorithm. But it will not prompt you in the middle of watching it. There must be an installed app or something in the data library that might be the cause for the device to behave this way. I suggest that you do a full clean-up by performing a factory reset and setting it up from scratch to remove any corrupted files or data. Just make sure that you install the apps that you know and trust.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Kimy

[Dizylily]

Hi Kimy,

Thank you for your assistance and advice. I followed your suggestion and performed a factory reset, setting everything up from scratch. Only installed a few well-known and trusted apps like Netflix, Viki, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube. Deleted any apps I don't use. But... the same thing continues to happen. The Thumbs-Up/Thumps-Down thought bubble still randomly pops up over a character's head at unpredictable times. Not limited to a single app; shows up while viewing NetFlix, Viki, Amazon, etc. Could it have anything to do with something more system--wide like Google Assistant being "on" or "off"?

Thanks again.

~Dizylily

[Kimy]

Hello Dizylily,

Thanks for your reply. Try to navigate through Settings > Accounts and Sign In > Content preference, and let us know if it helped. If not, we’ll proceed to our next course of action, which is getting help from the support team.

We look forward to your response.

Regards,

Kimy

[Dizylily]

Hi Kimy,

I navigated to the Content Preferences on the Chromecast as recommended, but it kept giving me a "Try Again" black screen with the following message: "To give you better recommendations and more personalized experiences, enable Web & App Activity for your Google account at g.co/myactivitycontrols."

So, in my browser I went to the Google account address above. The existing settings as they've been up until now are as follows:

- Web & App Activity is OFF.

- Timeline is OFF.

- YouTube History is ON.

- Ad personalisation is OFF.

I assumed having most of these set OFF would discourage the thought bubbles from popping up, since I believed it would minimize Google's interactivity while viewing streaming videos. But maybe I'm mistaken, since the bubble icons show up anyway with these settings Off?

I don't know what to try next.

Thanks,

Mary

[Kimy]

Hi Dizylily,

Thanks for the details. We'd like to look into this for you. Please fill out this form with all the needed information and let me know once it’s done so I can forward it to our support team.

Thanks,

Kimy

[Dizylily]

Filled out and sent. Thanks again for all your efforts to assist me, Kimy. I appreciate it!

[Markjosephp]

Hello Dizylily,

I'm chiming in to make sure everything is covered here.

Thanks for completing the form; we have received it. Soon, a member of our senior support team will contact you via email. So please keep an eye out for an email and continue the conversation there for any updates.

For any future questions or concerns, feel free to start a new thread—we're always here to help!

Warm regards,

Mark