Device Not Available? Only Tell Me When I Ask Directly! A Call for Better User Experience

[adamlove]

I'm an avid user of Google's smart speakers, using multiple devices across my home. However, there's one feature that's more of an annoyance than a help: 'device not available' messages. Whenever a device is not connected to the WiFi, and I give a general command like 'turn off the lights,' Google feels the need to report every single device that's currently unavailable. I propose an update where Google only informs us of unavailable devices when we specifically ask for that device. This would greatly enhance the user experience and make our smart home interactions smoother. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, community.

[David_K]

I can see the pros and cons of this one. If you ask it to do something for a group of devices or all devices, and one of them doesn't do that because it's offline or has an issue, I'd want to know that, but I can definitely see how it's a bit long winded if you have multiple unavailable devices. Maybe it can send a notification to the Google Home app, instead of reading them all?

I’d encourage you to also send this feedback directly to Google. You will not receive a response, unless Google need more details from you, however the team are still reading the feedback.

[adamlove]

Totally agree here. It says it every time - surely we can have an option to to only say it once, or just have a phone notification as you mentioned. I'm sure you can appreciate at very end of your day to turn off the lights, or turn them on in the morning, it's not the first/last thing you want to hear about.
We switch some of our smart devices off, or only plug them in sometimes - which I'm sure isn't that unusual - so it's becoming such an annoyance. Thanks for the reply, and yes we definitely continue to give plenty of feedback to our smart speakers!

[Princesss]

Hi adamlove,

Thanks! We appreciate your effort on sending a feedback. Let's continue doing that and let's hope that this will be available in the future.

Best,

Princess

[Muddi]

Hello adamlove,

I hope we were able to answer your question with the info provided by @David_K. If you have additional questions, feel free to respond to this thread and we'd be happy to further assist you.

Cheers,

Muddi