It’s not uncommon for smart speakers of all kinds to fail once in a while, but it seems there’s a larger issue at play with some Google Assistant devices currently. If your Google Assistant device is suddenly saying “Sorry, I didn’t understand” a lot, you’re not alone.
Over the past 48 hours, more or less, reports of Google Assistant devices failing basic commands seems to have skyrocketed. Reports have sprung up across various Reddit threads, Google support forums, and the Google Nest Community forums. The folks over at Droid-Life are also seeing the problem, both from smart speakers and smartphones using Google Assistant.
Those affected by this issue report giving their Google Assistant devices pretty basic commands and hearing the “Sorry, I didn’t understand” response out of the blue. Commands include everything from setting timers to controlling smart home devices. In the aforementioned report from Droid-Life, the issue seems to affect Philips Hue lights and Eufy cameras, but some camera brands, such as Nest, work fine. Errors even crop up during routines for those affected. There’s no real rhyme or reason to the issues, but it’s clear that something is happening on Google’s end, given how many reports have come out in the past couple of days.
One user on Reddit shared a screenshot of their history with Assistant, showing the constant failures despite trying a variety of commands.
So far, it does not appear as if Google has acknowledged this problem publicly, though one Redditor claims a Google support agent said that at least three other callers have come through with the same problem and that an investigation is underway. Given the nature of where that information comes from, though, it’s probably good to take it with a few grains of salt.
Update: A few hours after this story was published, Google offered the following statement, saying that the company is aware of this issue and that it should be fixed at this point.
We’re aware that there was an issue impacting Assistant powered devices. It has been fixed and Assistant is working as it previously did.
More on Google Assistant:
- Sony unveils the open style Link Buds with Google Assistant, Fast Pair, and skin touch controls
- Nothing ear (1) earbuds gain Google Assistant support via firmware update
- Google Assistant will soon get a new design and faster responses on Wear OS
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