cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Replies are disabled for this topic. Start a new one or visit our Help Center.

Google assistant about time issues

ww4
Community Member

It was once one of the best assistants. But now the most stupid assistant ever.

Today it even answered the question:

"What's the time?

with:

"According to Wikipedia Time..."

So my question is: How stupid will it get? Is there a bottom line? Or will it at one point just quit answering?

In other words: Does Google want to kill the assistant, to push BART or some other future product?

I mean we Google friends are used to this killing of products. But my entire home depends on this one...

30 REPLIES 30

duglop
Community Member

Had that exact same issue! ANOTHER classic is when Google makes you look at the phone screen instead of just telling you the answer - as if handsfree no longer exists!

NestJoke
Community Member

Step 1 : Make assistant dumber

Step 2 : Deploy Assistant with Bard that look smarter than it acutally is 

Step 3 : Profit 

Juni
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi folks,

 

Thanks for posting. I apologize for the inconvenience you're experiencing. We'll work together to identify the cause of the problem and find a solution. A few questions: what Nest speaker or display are we working with? When did it begin? Were there any recent changes made? Also, what steps have you taken so far?

 

Let’s try to refresh your devices and observe if it makes a difference. First, reboot your Wi-Fi router, and once the network is back up, do the same thing to your Nest speakers or displays.

 

Keep me posted.

 

Regards,

Juni

NestJoke
Community Member

Hey folks, 

Thanks for your copy paste , however ,as foreseen , it is useless... 
Wondering why i m even coming here for answers ... 



Juni
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi NestJoke,

 

We hear you — we can understand why you feel that way. Could you check if your Google Assistant recognizes your command? See the steps below:

  1. Open the Google Home app .
  2. At the top right, tap your account.
  3. Tap My Activity .

Regards,

Juni

duglop
Community Member

Let me put it like this This is how bad and how pathetic this app has got there used to be a time where it works to perfection there was never problems with it and then the money took over the agreed took over and all the failed updates and re-alignments and redesigns all took over...

As a result I have had to install motion sensing lights all over my place both inside and out because Google routines don't work right half the time anymore That's pathetic there's no excuse for that and it's totally 100% unacceptable

nj_slacker
Community Member

this stupidity includes the (non screen) mini answering a question with "here is the chart for that" as if it can even show a chart, which is not an acceptable answer when asking a simple question. for me, it was something in the kitchen with ml's to ounces(or similiar)

Muddi
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello nj_slacker,

 

Chiming in, we appreciate that information. Just an added question: have you tried the steps provided by ? Also, could you tell us the current firmware version of your device? 

 

Cheers,

Muddi

Niq
Community Member

I also get stupid answers.  Or no response at all.   Or out of no where she will given information on something when no questions have been asked.  

3 out of 5 times the reply is "I don't have any information on that"  but if I ask google on my phone it has the answer.  And asking her to turn on lights is always a 50/50 chance.

Juni
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi folks,

 

Thanks for posting. What is the distance between your Wi-Fi router and your Nest speaker or display? Have you had the chance to try the steps provided in this thread? If so and it does not work, try the factory reset; this erases all your personalized settings and restores the factory default settings. It won’t automatically reconnect to WI-Fi, and you’ll need to set it up again. Check out the article below to know more about it.

 

Factory reset Google Nest or Home speakers or displays 

 

Thanks,

Juni

duglop
Community Member

Right now Google is all kinds of messed up I haven't seen it this bad yet but it's horrible I just I had no more words.. Even Google's own preset family bells are failing now, And I have never ever edited them This makes no sense at all... Google is hesitating every time you ask her a question now and it doesn't matter if I'm my my home network my phone my tablet or even my laptop it's the same result Google is hesitating, Summer Google's websites are slow as hell now like Gmail and YouTube and I have more than one account and I even have a business account that I use at work that's even slow so it's not my stuff it's just in general, My nightly routines are hesitated they work after I have already got home and triggered them, it's just horrible but then again it's Google

ww4
Community Member

I think Google has a serious problem in product development right now. Nearly everything they release is buggy af. Be it Assistant, Maps, Mail or all their professional products.   

 

And even worst their "professional" B2B support is as intelligent as talking to Assistant. AI pretending to be human. And my company is paying a lot for that joke. 


Google reminds me about Microsoft around 2000. Incredible ignorant employees producing a buggy mess of code. Yeah, if you are a "Googler", be ashamed. 

Juni
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi folks,

 

Duglop, have you experienced any internet outages recently? Your Google Assistant’s response and action are based on your internet connectivity. If it's slow or there is an outage, you might experience delay issues.

 

ww4, thanks for the feedback. This is appreciated. Are you experiencing concerns about your Google Nest devices? Please let us know, we’d love to help.

 

Regards,

Juni

ww4
Community Member

That's such a typical Google support answer!

Even with a professional support contract we have as a company, it's always the fault on the customer's side. Even we are a software company too and we know what's a bug when we discover it. Maybe Google shouldn't have laid of 16000 employees this year. Their product design, development, QC and support suck. And you totally missed the AI revolution, your speakers now even have a Siri version 0.9 intelligence. 

Anyway, I sold all my GOOG stocks months ago and I can just recommend everyone to do the same - before it's too late

Juni
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi ww4,

 

Thanks for posting. We're sad to see you go. We'll definitely take this as feedback, and we'll ensure that we learn from it to be able to deliver a better experience in the future.

 

Best,

Juni

duglop
Community Member

So now when telling Google to turn on a set of lights she'll ask you if you want to turn on all the lights what the **bleep** is Google doing come on it's getting worse and worse and worse This is ridiculous You got to go through a goddamn story to turn on a **bleep**ing light

Jjl290
Community Member
  • Today I ask Google to close john garage. So what did Google do it gave me a list of John's repair shops in the area. And it's not the first time.

duglop
Community Member

Absolutely un**bleep**ing acceptable now I have to go and reprogram all my lights because Google changed **bleep** around and things don't work right anymore... why? 

duglop
Community Member

How about you guys just fixing your **bleep** crap for once listen to your users these are all repeat problems they're not fixed yet...

This app is constantly getting worse and worse. I used to be able to say hey Google change such and such light to such and such a color and it would turn it on and perform said task. Not anymore ,now when I say that all Google does is say sure changing light blah blah to a certain color but doesn't turn the light on Google is pure junk... Fix this excuse for an app!

duglop
Community Member

In other words now you have to have Google turn on a certain device before you can ask it to do anything with that device This is pure bull**bleep**. We're sick of it! Instead of simplifying things you're complicating stuff that doesn't need to be complicated and never was complicated til now... 

Jjl290
Community Member
  • I gave Google directions to navigate to my house I live in New York Long Island. Google's response North Carolina international airport 510 mi away. Can you believe it

It's also the phone versions, too!

Hey, Google.  How do I get from Steger, Illinois to Valparaiso, Indiana?

Her response?

"Sure. Valparaiso, Indiana.  Here you go."  Then shows me a map OF downtown Valparaiso, Indiana.  Keep rephrasing... results are of various statistics of Valpo: Crime rate, who the mayor is, when the town was founded, where's the best alley, I can use to get away with public

♡r!n@t!○n... Keep pressing, get detailed directions on how to get to Valparaiso, New Mexico.

Hey, Google, how do you spell, "progress," in Russian?

"Progress is spelled, P R O..."

Hey, Google! Stop!  I asked you how to spell, "progress," IN RUSSIAN!

"Progress in Russian is spelled P R O G R E S S I N R U S S I A N."

Oh, my Gawd!  Isn't she just a treasure?

Can't tell me lottery numbers anymore, either. 

sicsacol
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey Everyone,

 

Thanks for posting, and I'm sorry to know about your experience with your Google Assistant. 

 

We are already working with our developers to improve the Google Assistant and provide better interactions. You could help us by sending feedback and we will resolve it as soon as possible. You can do it through the Home app by:

 

  1. Open the Google Home app .
  2. At the top-right, tap the account icon.
  3. Tap Feedback  tap the device to submit feedback for.
  4. To display available emails, in the From section, tap the arrow on the right. Select the email address.
  5. In the feedback summary, write a brief description of the issue.
  6. Be sure to check the box for Screenshot and System logs.
  7. To submit feedback, at the top-right, tap Send .

 

Thanks everyone for letting us know — I've made the appropriate teams aware. We're always looking for ways to improve and I appreciate your feedback.

 

Regards,

Jonathan

Phaze
Community Member

I've noticed a significant drop in quality over the last few weeks whether using my pixel or my nest speakers. I can only assume that it's in some way related to the push for "AI" and/or the latest round of layoffs. Could be that they are intentionally sabotaging the assistant in order to justify deprecating it for some bard nonsense that will probably be worse than the assistant was when it was actually functioning properly.

I've had my assistant do the following:

  • Randomly decided to only change to the requested song on one speaker. Despite that it had been playing on a group of speakers. Two different songs playing, one of which I didn't like, is not pleasant on the ears.
  • I've had it many times straight up. Ignore my prompts. The lights would come on and flash when I would speak to it but it would just refuse to respond.
  • When requesting for a song to play, it said that I should open the Google home app and set up Spotify. I have YouTube music. It was what I had actively playing music on these speakers when I requested another song to play.
  • There have been points where the speaker will just randomly say something without being prompted. If I remember correctly, it was something like a request for me to say something again or similar. I had not said anything at all and had been quiet for some time.
  • The speakers wouldn't stop playing music despite me literally yelling stop several times.
  • This one is more of an annoyance, but I feel that I shouldn't have to state the name of the artist when requesting a commonly played song.
  • I asked it what the temperature was, at which point it began defining the word temperature.
  • I've had it tell me it can't find any lights in my home when I say lights out. I ended up having to specify the name of the light to get it to work.
  • I have the pixel 8 pro and I've noticed the voice to text is pretty bad. Noticeably worse than my previous phone. I'll be dictating a sentence and not have any pauses, just speaking normally and it will decide to split that sentence even if the structure of the sentence makes no sense with that random period there.
  • Again on the voice to text, I've had it in this very message end up just deleting an entire paragraph. No apparent reason why.

It's done many other annoying things but I can't think of them at the moment. I think I'll start a running document. The community rep's canned responses only make the situation worse. Asking for things like serial numbers and firmware versions as if this has anything to do with it. While in another response that very same rep states that everything the assistant does takes place through the internet connection. The issues are device agnostic. As another user stated, the firmware version shouldn't matter as Google forces updates without any user interaction for the nest devices.

I would really like to know what the community reps response tree looks like. At this point it looks like all I can say is check your internet, check your Wi-Fi signal, reboot your speaker or other device, what's the firmware version, and we're sorry to see you go. I understand the canned responses are a necessity when you have a forum to maintain or operate in a click to chat type position, but there's a certain point where you need to add some sort of variation to those responses. Otherwise you just like a bot.

 

I've typed most of this message using the voice assistant and I have had to correct it on nearly every sentence. So if you see anything that doesn't make sense or has some bizarre punctuation, that's the assistant.

jermethius
Community Member

I am glad to see it isn't just me. This evening, I became so annoyed to see if other were having these issues. This is the third site that I found where people were posting their frustrations. Below is a sample of an interaction I have been having in increasing frequency:

Me: Google what is the 48th state?
Google Assistant on Nest Mini (GA): I don't understand.
Me: Google what is the 48th state?
GA: I don't understand.
Me: Google what is the 48th state?
GA: I don't understand.  But, I found something similar...Do you want to know what the 48th state is?
Me: Yes.
GA: And three days later on February 14, 1912, Arizona was admitted as the 48th state. This would mark...(I don't remember the rest as I left the room where the speaker was, but it can go on for a minute or two with an over extended exposition on what should have been a simple answer.)

I have enjoyed my GA devices and it saddens me to think that they are slowly dying. But, I can't help agreeing with those who believe that this is the case. Interactions that use to be efficient, direct, and accurate are now more laborious than just looking up the information myself. Even tasks that were part of the commercials, which don't seem to be a thing anymore, seem to be a challenge for GA.  If Google is going to defunct this project, they should do like they did with Google Glass and admit already so that I can begin transitioning away from GA.

KellyLOBrien
Community Member

It's also happening on my phone... and I don't have this Google Nest thing.  Been declining for a few years.  I ask questions and get answers as if I said a different question.  Recent example: I ask it why the volume level on YouTube and some I-Heart stations are so low.  It responds, "Here you go," and shows me an app, called, "Volume Booster," to download.  Come on, "lady!"  I didn't ask, "Is there an app to improve my phone's volume level?"  All questions are answered this way, as if it is aggregating all related or similar questions into the same answer.  Anytime I start asking about it's problems, it gives me built in, smart-azz, evasive, passive/aggressive answers, or responds as if I asked, "Why don't people understand me."  Don't even get me started on the typing Search version.  If the Assistant were Wonderland, the regular Search is Through the Looking Glass!  I'm done falling down these rabbit holes!!!

🦇💩🤪👈

mutstumbo
Community Member

True, Google assistant has gotten more and more stupid over the last couple of years.  Seems like they look to go to the stars, but don't know how to actually build a rocket.  Let alone what gas it needs.

Google has gone down hill so fast that it should be called "hey moron" instead.

Guuglesuks
Community Member

I used to be a huge google fan, but lately they are failing at everything. I am a truck driver so I use the google maps a lot. It get worse each bleeping day. Google search engine is so commercial now that you cannot get to a simple answer with out many attempts. I now use You.com AI search and usually get my answers immediately. I used to keep google home minis's all over my house controlling lights, thermostat, garage door, cameras, coffee maker. Well basically everything you can think of and then some. Fortunately I decided to also program Alexa on all the very same devices. So when google inevitably fails to control something I just say "Alex turn on light 1"  or whatever I am trying to control and usually it instantly comes on.(That is not to say Alexa is perfect) But these days much better. So bottom line not only are they censoring everything on youtube and anything else the got their fingers into but they fail on all the other front too. If you want to get uncensored info you have to goto rumble or some other alternative. This concludes this rant for now.

duglop
Community Member

Here we go again deja vu there is a recent Google outage and ever since that slight outage routines have not worked at all, in fact very little is working and the last time this bull**bleep** happened it took you a **bleep**ing year to fix it **bleep** Google...

And before you ask all those thousand questions I have changed absolutely nothing this was a Google outage had nothing to do with anything I changed nothing is right ever since that outage So don't blame your customers blame Google 100% is on you fix your bull**bleep** or people will be leaving you for Alexa Siri Bixby and others because Google sucks...

Yes everything is updated, yes I cleared my cache Yes I uninstalled reinstalled Yes I used data Yes I used my Wi-Fi network Yes I used another network Yes I used another account... it's not **bleep**ing working and it was working up until that outage... FIX IT

 

duglop
Community Member

From Google Play review, which was reply to by Google home personnel please read this....

So I already told you everything I did on my end but none of it corrected the issues and yet you turned right around and suggested doing everything that I have already done? You don't even read our reviews. That was a cookie cutter reply... today after I've been home 12 hours, my night time presence sensing routines are going off at random and nothing is responding at all what is going on with Google? This has happened more than once over the years and takes you forever to fix it!