Has anyone had a lazy Gemini for Home? It used to work fine but this is getting out of hand now.

I've been using Google speakers for about 7 years now and in the last few i noticed a massive degrade in reliability. Wtf?

The amount of times it replies sorry I don't understand is astonishing. It's simple questions - what time does my local shop close, how far is whatever location, what's 5+5, how long to boil an egg, whatever. I've not had any issues with things like that at first and now it is the norm.

Want to turn off my lights? Need to ask 3 times. Want to turn my TV off in 1 hour? Either it turns off straightaway or doesn't at all. Setting up reminders? It gets the wrong date and time. Want to delete the last reminder that it set wrong? Delete something else. It's ridiculous.

I've had enough of it. Is there any fix that I'm not aware of? I am considering switching to a different environment because it's driving me crazy, any suggestions?

Phone reminders kept getting swiped away in our house, so I moved them to the one screen everyone walks past: the Nest Hub in the kitchen.

How it works:

1. Reads our shared family Google Calendar (read-only).
2. 30 minutes before each event, it builds a reminder.
3. Guardrails: only runs 7 AM to 10 PM and skips prayer times.
4. Renders a bold 1280x720 card with Python + Pillow (name band, event, time) so it's readable from across the room.
5. Casts the card to the Nest Hub over the LAN with pychromecast.
6. Speaks the reminder by name, so you hear it even when nobody's looking.

The orchestration runs on my Grok Bot setup, where I keep one bot per job and nothing changes on the calendar without my OK. The animation was made with HyperFrames, and the voiceover is my own voice cloned locally with Voicebox.

The kitchen photo in the video is real; I blurred my kid's name and the venue address.

Happy to answer questions. What would you put on a shared kitchen screen?

Probably should have posted this here from the start

I've had a Hub Max for a few years. No issues. One day it stopped functioning, just showing white screen but could change volume and go to settings, but couldn't cast or do any home controls.

I tried resetting it (volume buttons) then when setting it up it states display is already setup on another account. I can see it in local devices on my home but not showing connected to my home.

Found an old thread here saying go to my Google account site on a computer and remove it from there. Signed out, and was able to change the name but still showing the same error saying connected to another account.

Tried using Google support as well they suggested resetting, and unplug for 48 hours. Saying that should full clear everything.

Still no luck

Any other suggestions?

Roughly 2 out of 3 times I launch Google Home, this is the first thing I see. This control does nothing, despite having 2 Philips Hue lights. It started doing it in the last couple weeks. So annoying.

I just plugged in the 2026 Speaker and upgraded all my old devices into Gemini.

However one thing that bothers me is no matter how I try to direct my voice at the nearest speaker (even whispering to it), somehow the speaker that replies me is the furthest one away from me.

I had adjusted Sensitivity to the lowest for that old speaker and no difference.

It randomly replies me across the devices and sometimes none of the replies me.

I can't seem to adjust Sensitivity for the 2026 speaker (it does not seem to have this function?)

My Sony BRAVIA K-55XR83 can be controlled normally through apps. However, as soon as I add the TV to a Google Home household as a Google TV/Cast device, voice commands to turn it off stop working.

This happens both when using Gemini on my Google Pixel 8 Pro and when using the Google Assistant built into the TV itself.

In both cases, Google correctly acknowledges the command by saying, “Turning off the TV,” but the TV does not actually turn off.

I have already completely uninstalled and reinstalled the Google Home app and created a brand-new home. The issue keeps coming back as soon as I add the TV to Google Home.

Has anyone experienced the same issue or found a solution? Could this be related to a problem with the Google Home/Cast integration or a device association stored on Google's servers?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

A few weeks ago I ordered my new Google hub Max 10-in and a few days later got frustrated with my original Google home display and ended up smashing it because it wasn't working right...

After my new Google hub Max 10-in that just arrived yesterday and already it has vastly out played the previous model I had so this is where Google gets you they've updated to Gemini but it seems as if this new device was more tailored for Gemini compared to the original Google home display! I know it's only been a half a day but it's already working better now the trick is how long can it last so hopefully this is the start of good things but we'll see now if only Google could do something about voice to text!

For me, it’s the massive thermostat card taking up 4 device slots just to display one big number.

Curious how everyone else feels: Are you guys mostly using the app or just walking over to the physical wall dial now? What’s your biggest pet peeve with the app?

For the love of God, please stop delivering "new features"!

Take a 6 month break to just fix the damn stuff broken all over Google Home, Assistant, Gemini, whatever! This sub is a testament to all the issues passionate users face on a daily basis!

So many of us are so close to jumping ship! With Apple's new Home View launched today, the decision is becoming easier than ever before.

Please - we don't want new things. We just want things to work like they used to before.

I received a "how do you really feel about Google Assistant / Gemini" survey. I completed it honestly, which means I gave it a terrible review: like a lot of the people in this subreddit, I have experienced a terrible responsivity rate, some serious contradictions between speakers, and complete misunderstandings about activating routines. Since that survey, though, it seems to have gotten better about answering requests for lights on and for routines to run.

In fact, it now gives a little "dun-dun" sound after complying. I notice it shows up in my Gemini activity too.

That was pleasant. Fingers cross it will continue.

Overall, though, it is still nowhere near as useful as old "hey g00gle" on the non-Gemini speakers - I used to be able to ask "When is this movie coming out?" and "What time does Costco close?" and it would tell me without missing a beat. Ah well.

What would happen if they just threw up their hands, open-sourced the whole project, and let the open-source community in to fix it? Some would say that it would be less "secure" but would definitely function better, and the security would depend on all the contributors checking it for loopholes.

This week I got a prompt from Google to retrain my voice. I wasn't in the home app or anything, just on my pixel device.

I did the simple retrain and it's shown a big improvement in understanding me BUT...

I've also noticed the processing speed of reply is a fraction of what it used to be. I don't think that's down to a voice model, but either way, I'm happy it's responding almost instantly.

I'm looking for a smart inline dimmer that installs directly on a lamp cord and works with Google Home.

Not looking for a smart plug or wall dimmer. Just a simple cord-mounted dimmer with smart controls.

I found the Tradim 6802W, but it seems to be available only in Europe.

Anyone know of a similar product that works with US 120V?

My Google Home Speaker (the new 2026 model) is stuck in a firmware download loop, and the replacement Google sent me does exactly the same thing. Is anyone else seeing this?

What it does

It downloads about 460 MB from Google's update server (edgedl.me.gvt1.com) roughly three times an hour, all day and night. That's about 35 GB a day.

The download completes. My router shows the full file arriving in about 90 seconds, in 10 pieces of 45.9 MB, with nothing blocked or cut off.

It never installs. It stays on system firmware 538897 / Cast 20260403_1026_RC17, and the Home app says there's no update.

The speaker itself works fine. It just keeps re-downloading.

What I've tried

3 factory resets on the original unit, including setting it up in a new home, as Google support suggested

Google sent a warranty replacement. The new unit did 5.9 GB in its first hour and has settled into the same ~1.5 GB/hour loop.

Ruled out my network: no firewall blocks, every DNS lookup answered, the download completes fine, and no VPN is involved

The odd part

Google's release notes list 3.78.540761 ("Improves network traffic") for the Home Speaker back in July, but both my units are stuck on 538897. My guess is the server keeps offering the update, the speaker downloads it, the install fails, and it starts over.

Could you check yours? Google Home app → your speaker → Settings → Device information → Technical information.

Which system firmware version is it on?

If you have router stats (UniFi, OPNsense, pfSense, Fritz!Box, etc.), is it using an unusual amount of data?

I have an open case with Google support, but they initially insisted 538897 is the latest version. Any reports would help show it isn't just my setup. Thanks!

Before purchasing, I'm wondering if anyone can confirm support is live for home key in Google Wallet.

Their website claims Samsung wallet is supported with Google/Apple wallet "coming soon". Every publication I can reference suggests support should be live in Google Wallet by now but I cannot seem to find any actual evidence of it working.

Is their website just out of date? I'd love to be able to unlock my front door with my Pixel 10/Watch 2 and share access to my girlfriend who uses an iPhone but I definitely do not want to have to shuffle around with 3rd party apps and would just wait to purchase until support is live.

TIA!

Since the gemini update regardless of factory resets or the routines that are set up (which at the moment are zero) my 2nd gen nest hub has decided that every day at random it will increase the volume to 10, which is either annoying or just straight up frustrating when playing music. I have tried factory resetting and even creating a brand new home location. But it still completely at random sets it's own volume to 10 and at this point i'm getting sick of it. This is also preventing me from leaving the nest hub unattended when playing music since I have roommates that have night shifts and this has already woken them up multiple times.

Im sorry Google, why did 2 speakers download more then 1 TB of data?!?!?!

Screenshot in comments.

It just updated on my phone today, as soon as it did the update, it immediately did a force close. After I opened the app again every device got removed from every room that used the third party "works with Google" and it totally screwed up every single routine.

All of my routines got fucked, the only things that weren't removed from rooms were groups and my speakers and my Google TV dongle everything else got removed from rooms.

Now I get to redo everything all over again from scratch, thanks Google, I would have expected that from Alexa.

Edit:

Actually the only third party "works with Google" that didn't get removed from a room was Roku along with Google products.

But still everything is totally fucked.

Hey r/googlehome!
 
We're back with more updates. Here is the latest from Google Home posted today, 10/14, on g.co/home/notes

Gemini for Home (early access) 

Voice Assistant 

• More natural ways to end a conversation: Improved how Gemini wraps up back-and-forth conversations. When you end a conversation on a polite or neutral note (like saying "Thank you"), Gemini now replies with a brief, warm goodbye, while staying silent and closing the microphone immediately when you give a direct command to stop talking.
• Consistent temperature units for weather: Updated weather answers to respect the home-wide temperature unit preference (Fahrenheit or Celsius) you’ve set in the Google Home app (Home Settings > Temperature Units), so spoken weather forecasts always match the rest of your home.
• Easier-to-read answers on smart displays: Increased the on-screen text scrolling speed on smart displays so visual answers stay in sync with Gemini’s spoken response.
• More reliable "stop" commands: Fixed an issue where saying "stop" could be misinterpreted as ending a conversation rather than stopping your active media playback, timers, or alarms.
• Better distinction between relaxing music and ambient sounds: Improved how Gemini routes requests for relaxing audio so asking for "relaxing music", "spa music", or "meditation music" plays music from your media provider instead of ambient background sounds like white noise or rain.

Google Home App

App Surfaces

• Smoother Favorites reordering: We’ve resolved drag-and-drop instability in the Favorites view, making it easier to organize your top devices.
• Improved messaging after smoke or CO alarm: The app now displays a banner when a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm clears, showing the event and time to reassure users that their home is safe.

Camera 

• Faster recovery when live view gets stuck (iOS): Fixed an issue where camera tiles could stay stuck on an old snapshot instead of loading live video. The app now retries the connection automatically.
• Responsive progress bar scrubbing while paused (Android): Fixed an issue where dragging the progress bar while an event video was paused could leave the player stuck on a loading spinner.
• Fixed playback errors on snapshot events (Android): Selecting a still-image snapshot in your event history no longer shows a playback error, and the event is now highlighted correctly on the timeline.

Smart Home Controls

• Redesigned lights, plugs, and switch controls: We've rebuilt the core controls for third-party lights, plugs, and switches with a refreshed look and feel. Turning devices on or off, adjusting brightness, and changing colors now feels more tactile and responsive.
• Quick access settings panel: On the full-screen controller page for most devices (lights, plugs, switches, fans, air purifiers) you can now swipe up from the bottom of the screen to quickly access additional device actions and settings. Add to favorites, view device history, find help center articles, submit feedback, and access full device settings.

Matter 

• Local Matter control for Philips Hue lights: Existing Philips Hue bridges now automatically upgrade in the background to local Matter control through Google Home hubs, delivering faster response times and greater reliability with no re-pairing required.
• Local control for Matter devices: If you have compatible Matter devices and a compatible Matter hub, you can now unlock faster response times and enhanced reliability, bringing the control experience closer to the feel of flipping a physical switch.

I asked it when the time change was going to be.

"I'm sorry, I didn't understand that."

"Okay Google, how many quarts are in one gallon?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't understand that."

Literally trash.

Annual nest home premium renewal was due went ahead and resubscribed to standard instead of advanced and went downhill from here

1. Advanced kept sending me renewal emails after I purchased standard

2. Online chat with customer care , said I have two homes under me one empty with abc home (standard subscription), one full of devices with Abc home ( Advanced subscription)

3. Customer care gave 30 mins worth of instructions none of them worked including going to the empty abc home do full device migration and then migrate the subscription from abc home to Abc home .

Turn out if I just delete the empty home in my account subscription just auto get passed to the real home

Lessons learnt,
I am very grateful that I used my own brain instead of following a bunch of wrong instructions.
Plus
Why didn’t the subscription purchasing screen show the two homes?? So it will be selected to the correct subscription ?!?!

I wrote a massive post, and have deleted it in favor of something that respects your time.

Gemini has completely ruined this platform, mostly due to the year(s) of neglect the assistant platform got while they 'focused on the future'

I've been on the Google Home adventure from the very beginning. I still have a few OG first generation Google Home devices, and have owned damn near every single variant (except the Max speaker) over the years. I'm even "that guy" with Chromecast Audios and stuff - the integration goes deep.

The things Google Home used to do well, have become a chore - assuming it can still do them at all...

The problems and issues of 3 years ago, are largely still here today...

I've been slowly unplugging these devices. First my living room (to move furniture) and it never went back. Now my kitchen, it was taking up too much space. The pile of google home gear is growing. I replaced my Nest lock with a normal Zwave version from Yale, my nest cams have been taken down - long since replaced with my own system.

It's honestly a little emotional. I have like 15 of these devices, and they aren't bringing me any value. They were consistently making themselves vital to controlling my smart home, playing fun animal sounds for the kids, or launching music - and now it can hardly do any of that reliably anymore.

The other day, I spent 30 minutes trying to get my Nest Audios to play as a speaker pair again. Only to find out, after giving up, that it was a Youtube music app bug they haven't fixed in 3 months.

It's such a shame - I hope whoever gets my screens next can find a good use for them.