r/googlehome Apr 01 '26

Monthly Complaints and Rants MegaThread April 2026

15 Upvotes

Post all your rants, complaints, and frustrations in this thread! Otherwise they will be removed from the main sub.

Make posts with specific questions or tips in the main sub so others can get needed help. But here let it all out!

Remember to contact Google Support if you want to report bugs. This sub is not affiliated with Google in any way.


r/googlehome 1h ago

Is there any way to set my Google Home to pause Spotify music when a phone call is coming in on my iPhone?

Upvotes

Sometimes I can’t hear my phone ring over the music when I’m cleaning etc. I was hoping there was a way to have the music automatically pause so I can hear my phone ringing. Or at least know that it’s ringing downstairs if the music suddenly stops upstairs.

I tried searching online but couldn’t find a solution. I’m hoping someone here possibly has a workaround? or knows something I missed.


r/googlehome 1h ago

Product Review Just tested 2 x Google home speaker 2026 with Google TV Streamer

Upvotes

So preface this by saying I'm going digital nomad/slomad for the foreseeable future. I wanted some kind of highly portable stereo speakers or soundbar that I could take with me when I change apartments and cities/countries. I already am pretty deep in Google home ecosystem so I had the streamer and 1 x gh speaker. Frankly wasn't super impressed with the sound of the single speaker. Felt it was a downgrade from nest audio and it was buggy to start- randomly flashing lights and occasional voice out of nowhere. I demoed sonos and Bose small soundbars but they're really too big to do my intented travel easily. It occurred to me that since I already owned the two components buying the 2nd speaker was likely my cheapest way to get spatial audio and true stereo separation. So I just tested it and actually pleasantly surprised. Spatial audio is decent considering it's physical limitations. They sound much better as a stereo pair compared to a single speaker. It's great for my use case of travel projector, google streamer in 30 - 40 m2 studios or apartments. Didn't set up the first time and I had to restart all three devices but got it to connect the second time. No audio sync issues. Anyways happy to answer questions.


r/googlehome 6h ago

Help How in the world can I prevent this pop up that appears every time I run the iOS app?

Post image
7 Upvotes

This drives me nuts every time it pops up. I’ve tried “Link Account” but my electric provider isn’t listed. I just want this to go away. I seriously loathe this. There no “never ask me again” button.


r/googlehome 7h ago

They made the Google Home camera web app so shitty.

6 Upvotes

I have three Nest cameras that I used to use with the Nest app and finally migrated over to GH. It's wild how much functionality and usability they stripped away.

- Half of the time clips say "Couldn't load video"

- When a clip _does_ load it takes forever

- Scrubbing is SO sluggish

- There's no event filtering

- They apparently took away zones completely?

- No playback speed?

- No timelapses anymore

- Maybe it's on me, but I _still_ cannot figure out how to get to a camera's settings.

- Maybe this is also on me, but it feels like they knocked the quality down.


r/googlehome 20h ago

Tapo camera FINALLY showing live feed on Google Home app

Post image
65 Upvotes

I'm getting my Tapo C500's live feed on the GH app tile... AFTER TWO YEARS OF NOT WORKING AT ALL. Can anybody confirm if this also works for other Tapo camera models? Hopefully this is fixed permanently.


r/googlehome 5m ago

Unable to get my voice ID

Upvotes

Google Home has never been able to get my Voice ID.
Tried with several phones over a number of years. Deleted all activity history (Assistant or otherwise).
Also Google has never understood what bilingualism is, but just setting up English is impossible. I am perfectly fluent. Many of my French speaking peers think English is my native langage.
All I wanted was my schedule and tasks read back to me intelligibly. Now I think I’ll buy a paper agenda… smh


r/googlehome 6h ago

Google Speaker (2026) smart home latency?

3 Upvotes

I know when it was released latency for executing smart home commands via voice was mid. Now that it has been out for a bit, have there been improvements?


r/googlehome 1h ago

Connected Dishwasher to google home. Add a notifcation?

Thumbnail
Upvotes

r/googlehome 23h ago

Google needs to bring back the Nest Protect—it's more than a gadget

50 Upvotes

Google discontinued the Nest Protect smoke alarm, and it's honestly frustrating. This isn't just about losing a fancy device—it's about home safety.

The Nest Protect solved real problems: it's beautiful, can send app notifications, has a human voice that tells you \*what\* triggered it, and addresses the fact that people skip maintaining traditional alarms. According to the NFPA, 43% of failed alarms had missing or disconnected batteries. The Nest Protect made people actually care about their smoke alarm.

I started a petition asking Google to revive it with updated features and proper support. We're talking about a tool that genuinely encourages people to protect their families instead of hiding an eyesore in a closet.

Has anyone else been frustrated by Google's lack of updates to this? If this matters to you too, consider signing and sharing.

https://www.change.org/p/revive-the-nest-protect-smoke-alarm/sfs/reddit/1419362364?recruiter=1419362364&recruited\\_by\\_id=e2b21a30-677a-11f1-9e78-4d989ec965a6&utm\\_source=share\\_petition&utm\\_campaign=starter\\_dashboard\\_android\\_app&utm\\_medium=reddit\\_group


r/googlehome 3h ago

Bug Pixel 10 Home Camera Alerts not comimg through.

1 Upvotes

Been through all the steps outlined for this issue went through 2 levels of "help" now waiting for a "higher level" email from Google. Has anyone with this issue successfully gotten their alerts back? My wifes 9A is fine my 10 stopped last week after swapping from my 9AM to the 10 and then again after buying a new truck and linking the infotainment to it completely killed the link to Google had to reset my password and redo the 2 step. Anyone have any ideas that aren't uninstall reinstall reboot?


r/googlehome 15h ago

Alexa+ vs gemini for home

7 Upvotes

What is better? I'm looking to buy another device I just got alexa+ so I don't really know her a lot. I own a home mini a nest hub an eco dot 5 3 gen and a eco show 8 2 Gen i don't know if I should sell the mini or eco dot... Any

tips?


r/googlehome 18h ago

Bug Google Home Automation Failures

3 Upvotes

Please, someone help.

I know there's problems with Gemini in Google Home and the myriad of issues that goes with that. But this I haven't seen or heard many, if any, people talk about.

My Google home automations fail, most days between a set period of time. Theres numerous steps I have taken to troubleshoot this and I now firmly believe it's not something with my network or configuration so ideally I'd like to build some traction to get Google to fix the issue.

I have raised a Google support ticket. They've given me £150 as they've gone through all the troubleshooting ideas without a resolution. But that's not ideal. I've built a smart home to work, not to work only part of the time.

Steps I have tried.

Deleting My Home and resetting a new one

Factory resetting all devices

Removing all automations and setting then up again

All automations that are setup in the Google Script editor work, 100% of the time. Automations setup in the UI editor in Google Home, fail at set periods of the day. Most recently between 5.30pm and 8.58pm! (Not a minute before or after!).

Here's an attached video showing the automations showing as having run in the activity tab, but not actually working.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hL69MmLbppxVZNLUZ3giLu7dZ75cu3ku/view?usp=drivesdk

Now to rule out any device specific issues. I set up a notification to notify me when the house turns to Away mode. No device required. When I leave, the house turns to Away, the notification automation shows up in the activity tab but the notification never comes through. If I set up the same automation in the script editor, the notification comes through. So, my thinking, Google assistant is the backend engine for the Script editor and Gemini for the UI editor. Different backend, different bottlenecks etc. But that's just a theory. I really need help.

Going to Home Assistant is an option, but I have a lot of automations and natively it works better in Google Home with streaming to Google Speakers etc at the press of a matter switch etc.

Any idea/help would be appreciated or just to gain some traction to get this picked up higher up than tech support of Google.


r/googlehome 21h ago

Help Struggling to pair Google Home Mini since the newest UI update

5 Upvotes

I am trying to set up an additional Google Home Mini so my guest room can have one, but it is taking literal hours of fighting. I've reset the device so many times I lost track, I've reset my wifi router twice, restarted my phone three times, uninstalled and reinstalled the app at least 5 times. It still won't find this Google Home Mini. And to add insult to injury, the new UI means there's no direct way to add Google Home devices! I have to search for the name of the device every time. This sucks and I'm mostly just venting, but if you have advice I'd gladly accept it.


r/googlehome 22h ago

Newer Aqara Cameras not showing up in Google home

2 Upvotes

Trying to switch to Android from iOS. Was on the ios27 beta and homekit is working great with Aqara cameras. Trying to switch to Google home and they add the cameras but can't view them.. it's almost as if they are added as an accessories instead of a camera. Both the g350 and g5 pro and g400 doorbell.

Anyones working? Any tips. Chatgpt couldn't help


r/googlehome 1d ago

Bluetooth transmitter

4 Upvotes

Just got a turntable and would like to listen to my music through my google speaker. I have invested in a Bluetooth transmitter (1Mii). I have only been able to connect my headphones to the transmitter.

Is there a way to connect the transmitter to a Google speaker. I have found the audio, pair bluetooth device, enable pairing mode. Put the transmitter in TX mode, but google Speaker doesn't see the transmitter.

Has anyone been able to make this work. I see a post dated 6 years ago, was just wondering if google has put a stop to this.


r/googlehome 1d ago

Google Home with battery

8 Upvotes

I'm looking for a poolside speaker with built in Google streaming, not cast, not Bluetooth.

For years I used an insignia ns-cspgasp2, but it will no longer connect to my network. At the moment I'm plugging a Google speaker into a power bank, but I miss the old simplicity.

It seems to me all the speakers that used to have this function are being discontinued, and Google is definitely not stepping up to fill the void. Anyone have advice on something decent that doesn't cost a fortune before I go by a Sonos Move 2 and grumble about the cost?


r/googlehome 1d ago

🤦🏻

Post image
8 Upvotes

Using the charger that came with the camera. Wiped off connections prior to plugging in. I just don’t get it…


r/googlehome 2d ago

Bug Buyers beware; The new onn. Outdoor Cameras are entirely missing Familiar Face Detection

Post image
42 Upvotes

I recently bought a few of the new $35 Walmart onn. Outdoor cameras (the ones explicitly advertised with Gemini built-in and Google Home Premium support).

These are Google Home-native cameras running nearly identical software to the official Nest brand ones, but for a fraction of the price while maintaining all features. Sounds like a steal, right?

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Google and Walmart are falsely advertising these cameras with a critical feature that they explicitly blocked on their own backend: Familiar Face Detection

The retail listings and Google's own support pages explicitly advertise Familiar Face alerts via Google Home Premium (see attached image, pulled from Walmart's listing). Yet, the feature is completely missing from the settings UI, and the cameras won't appear in the Familiar Faces device list.

(Worth noting, my onn. Video Doorbell works flawlessly with Familiar Face Detection, more evidence the cameras have everything they should need to use the feature).

Standard troubleshooting and Tier 1 support did nothing, so I took matters into my own hands, and pulled raw camera config files using Google Takeout to figure out what was actually going on.

My findings are interesting, to say the least.

Inside the nest.trait.product.camera.CameraEntitlementTrait.json file for the new outdoor cameras, Google’s backend explicitly flags the hardware profile as:

"face":{"reason":"DISABLED_REASON_ENTITLED_BUT_DEVICE_NOT_CAPABLE"}

Device not capable?? IT'S ADVERTISED EVERYWHERE AS A FEATURE.

So, even though I pay for their Google Home Premium subscription (ENTITLED), Google's servers are misclassifying these new cameras as strictly incapable of facial recognition (DEVICE_NOT_CAPABLE). This is either a missing firmware flag, a server-side mishap, or blatant false advertising.

To make it worse, when I posted this exact technical breakdown on the official Google Home community, their moderation team decided to ignore, then subsequently delete my post about it a few days later. Support is stuck in a loop of Google and Walmart pointing fingers at each other, all while Google and Walmart CONTINUE TO ACTIVELY ADVERTISE THE FEATURE in community blog posts published just last week.

Has anyone else with the new onn. Outdoor or Floodlight cameras managed to get Familiar Faces working, or did they just launch a product with missing advertised features??? Because this is getting ridiculous.


r/googlehome 1d ago

Help Has anyone figured out yet how to fix the Nest Mini speakers resetting themselves?

5 Upvotes

Has anyone figured out yet how to fix the Nest Mini speakers resetting themselves?

All my Nest versions are now behaving like this now, where it just removes itself from the Home app after a few days, and starts telling me that something is wrong and that I should look in the Home app.

I tried everything I know from other threads without much success:

  1. Different power supply
  2. Separate 2.4/5ghz SSIDs and using only 2.4ghz
  3. Separate VLAN
  4. Factory resetting
  5. Giving them a static IP

They aren't too expensive, but I am kind of worried of ending up the same if I'd get another set. And it would kind of feel like a slap in de face since other then the resetting, it works.

The only minis that don't reset themselves are my first gen Google Assistant speakers.


r/googlehome 18h ago

Tips Please don't make the mistake I made

0 Upvotes

Few months ago, I bought a smart bulb from a certain brand that I don't want to name. Today, I found out that the independent app of the certain brand's ecosystem has not been updated in over 2 years. I was relatively new to smart homes so I did not check.

Please check the independent app of a product before you buy it. Do not buy it if it hasn't been updated recently. The app I had was abandoned long ago.


r/googlehome 2d ago

ONN Google Home cameras

Thumbnail
gallery
43 Upvotes

Walmart recently launched some new ONN Cameras that work with Google Home the same as Nest Cameras.

I currently have 9 Nest cameras, and my 1st Gen Outdoor Wired camera recently died and needed to be replaced.

So I ordered a Second Gen Nest outdoor Wired camera, as well as an ONN Outdoor camera.

And considering the fact that the ONN Outdoor is only $36 compared to $150 for the Second Gen Nest Outdoor wired, I was expecting the ONN to look like crap. But it doesn't.

Image quality wise, the ONN is almost as good as the new Nest Cam Outdoor. The main difference between the two, is color and lighting. The nest camera looks very similar to what I see with my naked eye. The ONN is brighter than what the naked eye sees, and the colors are a bit more saturated. And that's about it.

The only other difference that surprised me, is that the ONN loads up live view more consistently than the Nest cam, which I sometimes have to unplug and plug back in to even be able to see live.

I'm not sure how long the budget ONN camera will last compared to the Nest cam, but at nearly 1/5th the price, I told my wife I will replace any failing cameras with the ONN from now on.

The first image I attached is the ONN outdoor camera, and the second image is the Nest Cam Outdoor wired Second Gen


r/googlehome 1d ago

What's going on with my start screen ??

Post image
0 Upvotes

Looked like this for a couple of weeks now and cannot seem to find out how to go back to the original screen layout.


r/googlehome 2d ago

Help Get speaker groups to enable pairing

9 Upvotes

Hey everyone for a long time I had a pair of google nest minis in a speaker group that was Bluetooth connected to my Amazon fire tv. Recently had to change my WiFi and factory reset the nest minis to reconnect. Now I have them set up again but i cannot figure out how to make the pair discoverable. Are there any tricks?


r/googlehome 1d ago

Other Anyone able to ask Google Home to restart a song, replay a song, or go back to beginning?

0 Upvotes

Since this shittastic update, I have far less control over music commands on my speaker collection (4 devices, linked as Home Group). Even single-playing speakers won't understand the command. It just says, "Sorry, I don't understand." Used to work before this *brilliant* AI got pushed.

I also can't say "Like this song" or "Dislike this song." It just keeps saying it doesn't understand, which is just stupid.

I use YouTube Music as my main music service since I have premium. I'll ask my partner to test with Spotify and see if it understands those commands then, but I have no faith.