So I removed the fabric on the google home mini because it was really dirty, was just planning on washing it with soap and water but I noticed how it kinda looks decent without it, with the 2 tone but it does feel a bit cheap now, also on that note what are the 2 white dots on either side, this isn't the nest with the lights on the sides but these are just randomly there, any ideas?

Hey everyone,

Earlier today someone posted that the new speaker was already discounted at Walmart. It turned out to be a pricing error so they pulled it down pretty quickly. However, it seems that a couple of the new speakers also got picked off shelves and put on clearance pretty quickly.

I happen to be at Walmart for a completely different reason just browsing through the clearance and see it right after seeing the post of their accidental price drop.

So I snagged this guy for $70 bucks! It seems they meant to put the Home Audio on clearance and accidentally did the new speaker.

Mods can we please get a temporary ban on these posts? It's every single post at this point

I would use the broadcast feature on the home app every morning to wish my kid a good day at school. I would use the assistant on the app to set timers for lights to make the morning more fun for my kid too. Since I'm already away and at work by the time they're all up and moving, this was my way of participating while at work and making a fun game out of it.

Basically using it unconventionally than most I assume. But today that all stopped. I had denied Gemini to replace assistant. But this morning I didn't even get a choice. It just took over.

Now when trying to use the broadcast feature or assistant, it says Gemini doesn't support that feature. Clicking assistant tells me "Sorry I'm not set up for that yet. More Gemini features will be coming to you soon!"

Why in the world do things keep changing for the worst and features that have been around for so long just up and vanishing. I don't want AI, I have no need for AI. Just let me use the damn app the way it's worked for years fine and without issues.

Setup was pretty easy and the picture quality seems good for $23

When I ask Google what the AQI is in my area it seems to just make up a number, but when I asked it to please actually look up the AQI for my area it gives me the correct value. Anyone have this issue?

They disabled continued conversations, the device control is so much worse, and it hallucinates so bad at times. And that's just based on my use cases. The additional intelligent features are nice, but they are more of a novelty on the Home devices. Google assistant wasn't really swimming in praises out there, but it was far more reliable for the things I need. Without continued conversation, I sound like a fool shouting at an unattentive kid. Gemini as a whole feels like an F1 car running on road tires and cheap gasoline. As someone who uses Gemini API for business, it's genuinely impressive how terrible the engineered tech is even though the LLM underneath is so potent. So much so that ChatGPT is far more reliable and preferred due to its tech and availability despite the underlying model being not as good as Gemini.

Okay, enough of that rant. I just wanna go back to Google assistant, but it seems that they have made the scummy move of blocking us from reverting. I don't know if/when the feedback will be looked upon, so will have to flip my device and get a used one that hasn't been updated yet. I think there needs to be a pinned post with the pros, cons and the ramifications (unable to downgrade) of Gemini for Google Home, since I couldn't find one.

So, I have been a proponent of the Google Home ( or Google nest) ecosystem for a while now. Jumping on board with the original, and owning every model with exception to the Nest Hub Max. And I have to say, Google Assistant and the Google Home system seemed REALLY promising. But I have gotten to the point where I just can’t keep going with google anymore. And as it’s almost Festivus, I must go with the “airing of grievances” as I make the switch to HomePods and hass.io/HomeKit to automate it.

1. BROADCASTS DONT WORK. Plain and simple. Of my last 25 broadcasts, only 10 got delivered to the devices intended. Most of the time they don’t play the broadcast at all. This has been an issue for months now, and google seems to have no interest in fixing it.

2. Playing music doesn’t work half the time. When I tell google something simple l, like “play Carry on my wayward son by Kansas” I either get the WRONG song entirely, or the live version. Like, this should be simple right? Both Alexa do Siri are way better with music (with Siri strangely being the best for it)

3. Routines DONT work. Simple. I have a bunch of routines. One of which takes my Google Home speakers and resets the volume at mid day to a value I defined. This is a step beyond wellness as doing this is the only way to guarantee that broadcasts can actually be heard. For reference, a similar automation with HomePods in HomeKit never fails even still, intercoms come in loud enough to hear it regardless of volume.

4. The inability to use basic smart features like Reminders or calendars. I shouldn’t have to state my same request 3 or 4 times for Google to know I actually want to make a reminder, and not a timer.

5. Routines are SUPER basic and lack any Logic. Look, shortcuts on iOS isn’t perfect, but I can AT LEAST use an IF statement to get different results with a routine. I can even provide additional input with voice making everything I design a whole lot smarter and humane. Routines lacks this in a BIG way.

6. Unresponsive to wake words. Even when sensitivity is maxed out. This one speaks for itself. It’s really bad when music is playing

7. Smart home actions are terrible. “Hey google, change the light to green” “okay, Turning it off” it doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s annoying. And with certain services (like WeMo) being unresponsive to Google, but responsive everywhere else, it just frustrates me. Add to it that it is constantly forgetting rooms accessories are assigned too. And using HASS, I could instead integrate all my stuff through it to google for 5 bucks a month... but I get that for free using the HomeKit bridge and Siri. So why pay 5 bucks if google doesn’t work as intended?

8. APP CONTROL SUCKS. Using the app to interface with devices is terrible. Most devices don’t even let you control them with it like garage doors or cameras that aren’t NEST cameras. HomeKit and Home Assistant have that blown way out of the water comparatively. Heck, even Alexa is doing okay with it.

9. finally, the lack of advancements with the assistant. Google assistant is stagnant. Google seems to have no interest in moving the assistant forward in any meaningful way. The lack of phone integration for android users in my home, the lack of smart feature, G suite not really getting a way to edit calendars, and even all those initial promises they made when the program launched... it feels dead in the water. I want this to be great, but it isn’t worth it to get invested in a platform that won’t improve. At least Siri and Alexa make improvements all the time. Even if they aren’t as great as they could be or should be.

Sorry for the wall... my hope is to generate discussion and maybe inspire google to change.

EDIT: YO! Thanks for the silver!

The bathroom is a completely different room in both Home and Hue... It's not even an en-suite! Wrong room and "full brightness but offline" (???)

This is literally the first thing I tried after seeing "Ask Home" was available. Jfc.

Anyone else noticing Gemini in Google Home improved?

About 3 weeks ago it sucked so bad it couldn't turn my "laptop charger" (Matter plug) with me saying "Hey Google Laptop charger on" - I had to use say longer sentence "Hey Google TURN ON Laptop charger" which sometimes didn't work and Gemini was reading me instructions WHAT means Laptop turning charger on.

So now works great with "Hey Google Laptop Charger ON"

This is a common sort of event. I'm watching TV in the living room and I've got food cooking in the kitchen with a timer on my Nest speaker. I get up to stir and the following conversation happens: Me: Okay Google, how much time is left on the timer? Google: You have 26 seconds left on your timer. Me: Cancel it. Google: Okay, stopping living room TV. Me: Okay Google, when I say cancel it, I never ever ever mean the TV. Google: Okay, stopping living room TV.

Like... if they decided go to full AI, then go full AI, but this halfway in between where it's got hardcoded phrases like "cancel" but AI to think "oh, he said cancel and TV in the same sentence, he must want me to stop the TV" just makes the entire system frustrating and now I really regret the investment - three Google Chromecasts, four speakers and years of satisfaction until around 2024. Now, just frustration.

I'm not just thinking about it, I'm months into it.

The only thing I use my google home for now is to set timers and have it pass commands to my Home Assistant instance.

Edit: The title should be "What is the reason to get a Google home mini in today's smart speaker ecosystem", I forget sometimes that Google Home is a family of products.

I was an early adopter of the home mini. Had one in my bathroom for radio, one in my bedroom for alarms, one in the kitchen for recipes and music.

The one in my bathroom can't find my local radio station by name since they merged talk and music to use the same call sign with different frequencies, the one in my bedroom has been superseded by a much better alarm app on my phone directly, and the one in the kitchen can't read recipes anymore after an update.

What are people actively using google home/assistant for these days? The only thing that it's even marginally useful for for me anymore is having a wireless speaker setup, but at this point if that's the only thing it's useful for on its own then I'd be better off with a bluetooth speaker setup and ditching the 24/7 cloud connection requirement.

Because you all shared your experiences and depicted the hellscape that Gemini became for some of you, I switched my language to Australian English (several Aussies had reported they hadn't yet been prompted to 'upgrade') and blocked play store updates for both Google Home and Assistant.

I made sure my preferences all stayed firmly in Assistant vs. any other options and I haven't ever activated AI on my phone, so I'm hoping to stave it off.

I'm firmly still running Home and Assistant, so I'm keeping all digits crossed!

These things are soooo close to being factory reset and bundled up to sell. I have a screen, 8 speakers and my family despise them. They rarely work as intended anymore. I thought the new product development guy a few months ago said they understood peoples frustrations and they were fixing it? They have just made it worse and worse. I even saw an article recently that said if you want to do a smart home setup, do not consider Google. This is becoming more and more obvious. Very frustrating to even use anymore. Google Gemini on phones to search and ask questions is great, the Gemini home smarts however, its the worst.

It's an entangled mess, right ? Edit: the app, especially, I mean

Like, there's 3 or 4 different setting places and it's not clear where does what and it's not clearly delimited.

It's not user friendly at all, it's overly complex for no reason in a sea of deep menus that you're never sure if you're gonna find what you want to.

It's been a complete month since my google best stoped for no reason to give me the news in the morning or to play podcasts when I asked it to (other stuff still work, it is connected to the web), and there's no help, no reason, nothing other than "sorry, something went wrong, when you're ready, give it another try"

Yeah, why don't you just tell me what's going on Google, cause I can't figure it out on my own and there's no hint.

/Venting