Calling Home devices no longer supported

[Artee60]

In what universe would a company that provides a smart home platform and devices remove the ability to make calls between devices. It is the reason why most people have more one device. Replacing this feature with a crude 'broadcast' option just does cut it.

How could you get this so wrong? Are you so arrogant as a corporation you literally don't care or communicate with your customers? It seems you are about to exit this market given the steady attrition of features. This is sad and infuriating for me as a Google customer, I have android phones and nest home devices everywhere. I feel like I have been literally slapped in the face. And please don't bother to come back with the usual Bot reply

[JillG]

Hi @Artee60 

Not a bot...just a fellow user of Nest products and community volunteer. I hear you and appreciate your post. No insight and no solutions to offer but glad you posted and other community members will be sure to comment here. 

You could send feedback via your Home app or through the Nest Hub. 

[Tonsoffun49]

Yeah, just noticed this was no longer supported when I tried to call the nest hub display in my kids room. What the actual f. 

[alejandom · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone,

I'm  sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the new updates, I would like to know what you think about the new updates, so I will leave you a link where you can leave your feedback.

Regards,

Mario. 

[jtrythall]

This is pathetic. This is the only reason I bought so many Google displays. I have them all throughout my house so I can talk to my children.

Bad move, Google. Onto the next ecosystem. Seriously, this is so pathetic. 

[Nanroy]

hush a mouth

[Nanroy]

Useless

[Nanroy]

Thanks for making my decision to move to Alexa easier

[Borjajf]

You guys at Google are terrible. You did the same thing with the lights on the nest. Cam. Now every time I look in my nest cam a thief gets to know when I'm watching the camera because the green light automatically comes on, I contact Google about it and your solution is put electrical tape over it. How about stop messing with the stuff we purchased. We purchased this stuff with functionality that you marketed. This should be illegal, and it probably is.

[zombiesaaargh]

I'm not sure which is worse, that they removed a feature or that they are refusing to communicate the fact that they are going to do it so we have to find out that it's deliberate, and not a technical problem after the fact.

[Borjajf]

Yeah, I'm done with this. I'm filing a complaint with the FTC. It's not right we buy products that are advertised as having features, LIKE calling devices, or remember IFTTT?! They took that away too! 

[zombiesaaargh]

What we need are for some European owners to get involved, Europe has stronger consumer protection laws. Removing a feature after it's been purchased has previously been found to be wrong 

[Borjajf]

I filed my report to the FTC over this, there are many more features taken away because of the "low use" excuse. I named all the features removed I experienced in my filing. If you live in the US I'd recommend doing the same, the more complaints FTC gets the more likely they will take action against this bad business practice. Also I'll be contacting the State Attorney General's office for my state....this is all we can do, other than switching to Amazon, which I plan to do soon.

[GavinM]

Agreed... What is going on??? Was a great way to call other rooms in the house or call home to make a reminder if someone didn't have their phone on them. Might look at alternatives. Really want to know why they got rid of this feature. 

[Asprinkle84]

I couldn’t agree more. I bought the nest products to be able to reach my children and make a list and do all kinds of things that I no longer can do anymore!

[Borjajf]

Call and file a complaint with the FTC. Then call and file a complaint with your state AG. Google was advertising features that it took away after our purchase, this is false advertisement and baiting the consumer. The more complaints that are filed the better the chance that the FTC will take action against them

[James5]

Agree… can you change it back. I brought this and setup for this function… again with kids rooms

[Borjajf]

Yeah this is wrong, I think we need to start calling the consumer protection agency. Google's done this three times that I can think of on the top of my head, they marketed this stuff with if this than that functions ittf, you used to be able to turn off the green status light on the nest cam when you first bought it, facial recognition on the camera worked much better when I first purchased it, and now they've taken away the ability to call your own home device from your phone, these are things they marketed to us when we purchased these  I think every one of us should take them up on arbitration at this point, and I also think we need to contact the consumer protection agency. This has gone far enough, I'm thousands of dollars deep into these Google devices that were sold to me under the promise they would perform certain functions that they've taken away.

[sharkattack]

So annoyed that was implemented without warning 

[TechMomma]

I got notified, more like a reminder that the feature will be disabled soon... but we never agreed, nor were we given an option! So annoying! I feel like buying a phone, only to be warned later on that the call feature will be disabled! 

[zombiesaaargh]

I didn't.

[TechMomma]

I agree with everyone. I purchased Google Nest speakers for ALL rooms in my house and my senior mom's house mainly for the call feature. It's the most fastest and convenient way to communicate with everyone in my household. Imagine me using the broadcast feature while cooking to ask everyone about adding a certain spice to their food. I'd prolly have to wait 5 minutes for everyone's response, and by then, the food would be burnt.

[Tomus87]

It's so funny because I used the same feature for the same reason. Like when dinner or breakfast is ready. That was like the best feature so I don't have to wake up everybody in the house. 

[Adams2712]

Yeah, I have multiple speakers and displays in my house, use them for communicating with my kids who dont/can't answer phones or respond with a broadcast. Utterly ridiculous that I can call my singular echo dot in the house (got as a gift) but not an entire network of Google devices. Get this sorted. Broadcast function is nothing like a proper fix for this. 

[NorfolkAndWay]

Google - this is a popular feature for your Home devices.  Please restore it.  If there is a good reason why you canned it, please explain.

Like many others here, this feature was one of the few ways we had to assemble the family for meals etc (sad, but true).  

[Miguel-Almeida]

What on earth is Google doing?

Recipe for disaster:

1. Launch an innovative service

2. Forget the 3rd most spoken european language.

3. Ignore your customers

4. Mess with basic functions

5. Kill some devices by turning them incompatible or not supported

6. Get rid of basic, cool, most appreciated functions without warning

It's incredible how naïve this is.

[brandoteek]

Same here! I bought these devices mainly because to use this feature, to call room to a room specific, Not to broadcast to everyone all the time. Is this going to be fixed? Please Google team, bring that feature back. 

[Tomus87]

I'm curious if Google will listen to few of us. If we don't know why this has been disabled is probably had something to do with money. We have a huge house and I wanted to install intercom in all the rooms but then I noticed that Best had this feature. We have 10+ displays in the house and this is one future that we use. I hate to switch to Echo but at the same time I'm not spending $1k+ on each room intercom. So Google you might start loosing costumers because I don't care what device I use as long as it works. 

[alejandom]

Hi everyone,

I can assure you that Google listens to all the customers feedback, if you leave your feedback on the link that I've sent you before, Google will see for you. 

Regards,

Mario. 

[Adams2712]

That's great Mario. I've left feedback via the link multiple times, but the system isn't set up so a response can be provided, so at the minute I'm just shouting into the ether. How does Google plan to remedy this clearly poor decision, about to move over to alexa ecosystem that still offers this feature.......... 

[jtrythall]

They don't plan to remedy it. Mario is just making sure he placates those that are complacent. I implore everyone to review these devices with a single-star across any retail location you can imagine online.

They just killed the sales of their new "Pixel" tablets that they released in place of these Google Homes. In fact, I would venture to guess the feature is available on the new devices and Google merely pulled an Apple on us.

[jtrythall]

You say this, but it's still not an option. It's clear your consumers want it back. Put it back. Why is that so difficult? Again, this is pathetic and a waste of money. Right now, my wife is sick and sleeping on the couch. Both of my kids are downstairs, also sick. Before your idiotic decision to remove this feature, I could have called them and stayed on the video call while I stay upstairs in my office and work.

But now? Now I can't even talk to them when having the video feed up. I have to broadcast something, while watching the stupid mute video feed.

This is seriously bad. I'm making sure every single one of my Google Home reviews is revised with a single-star and I implore every other pissed off parent in this section to do the same.

Until Mario and the Google Team decide to listen to their consumers, I'll enjoy seeing your ratings tank across the board.  That's how stupid removing this feature was on your party.

[Borjajf]

I've filled a complaint to the FTC. This is dumping on the consumer. After selling us a feature, Google takes it away? That's WRONG. And this isn't the first time they've done this! It has happened multiple times! Our purchases need to remain protected...if Google wants to implement this stuff on new devices, fine, at least that gives us, the consumer, the opportunity to decide if we want to consider continuing with Google's downgrade. It's wrong to sell us a feature and take it away. Many of us have invested THOUSANDS on the Google home ecosystem upon performance promises Google has made. Since I've implemented my smart home it went from nearly flawless, to almost useless. I'm not asking Google to do the right thing anymore...I'm filing complaints with anyone who'll listen against this terrible business practice. 

[jirskyr]

I agree with posters 100%. I recently bought a bigger house and added a few nest devices to the ones I already have; wanted to start being able to call different rooms especially because my wife and I both work from home at opposite ends of the house. I don't want to broadcast every time esp. for a private conversation or if kids are asleep.

To think that Google disabled device-device communication for what is essentially a video caller/ player is unbelievable.

Bring back the feature please, you are one of the biggest corporations on Earth and your devices should not be shackled half-baked curios.

[spamcss]

Utterly ridiculous.  The only reason we purchased these speakers and hubs.  Please reinstate this feature!

[Borjajf]

File a complaint with the FTC

[gvanhecke]

I can't understand why this feature was removed. Like many others here, I had 5 Nests at home to communicate between rooms... Now, I feel like I've been scammed by Google.
As a workaround, we can send notifications to all rooms. However, notifications don't facilitate bidirectional communication, which is frustrating!

[Mannyman]

Pretty sure this is all due to a patent lawsuit Google lost.

[KiltedGoth]

Because of this, I'm selling all 4 of my nest hub max devices and getting Alexa. Google really effed up on this. They one thing that swayed my decision to buy them, now it's gone. Big mistake Google.

[Borjajf]

Sell them? I'm sending mine via mail to Google HQ. They can have them.