Skip to main content

Almost all Google Homes began failing on June 3, but have now been fixed

google home outage 2 720x720
If your smart home hub from Google wasn’t so smart last weekend, don’t worry — you weren’t alone. Rather, there was a Google Home outage over the weekend, and apparently, there was a “nearly 100 percent failure rate,” as per Android Police. Alas, even the brightest of our virtual assistants have off days, and for Google, that day happened rather recently.

The outage occurred at a rather inopportune moment, as Google had very recently lauded the various capabilities and fancy features of Google Assistant and its smart home hub at I/O. But many users suddenly found themselves unable to interact with their devices, with messages like “There was a glitch, try again,” popping up with alarming frequency at a time when many users were relaxing at home instead of toiling away in their offices.

In fact, this problem first appeared late last month. At the time, a Google Home representative replied to a complaint on the Google Home Help Forum, “We are actively investigating this matter and we greatly appreciate all the feedback and reports from everyone. Please bear with us while we continue to work on this.”

Things finally reached a boiling point on Sunday, June 4, and by Monday, Google said that it had found a solution (though its related statement didn’t really address what the original problem was). In any case, if you were experiencing problems with your Google Home, you should be fine now, and if not, Google recommends restarting your device by unplugging it and plugging it back in after about a minute.

But really, all this proves is that no matter how smart your devices are, they’re not entirely infallible. So don’t hang up your hat just yet, friends. You’ll still need to maintain a few vestigial skills to make your way through this life, because our virtual assistants clearly can’t do everything for us … yet.

Editors' Recommendations

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Google Home’s web preview is live — and it’s missing most features
google home web preview 2

If you've got a Nest camera and have been dying to give it a go as part of Google's new web preview, it's time. Head to home.google.com and have a look. Just be prepared to be largely underwhelmed and to remind yourself that it indeed is in preview status.

The Google Home web preview is live, but sparse. You can view cameras (here, in a grid), but that's it.

Read more
Samsung and Google partnership finds a shared home for SmartThings
The Google Nest Audio speaker on a table.

Matter — the interoperability protocol that will bring smart devices from different brands under a single umbrella of control — is less than a month away from its official launch. Ahead of the grand reveal, Samsung and Google have announced a partnership that adds a convenient element of interoperability to their respective smart home ecosystems.

Sounds confusing? Well, here’s the easy breakdown. Samsung, in collaboration with partner brands, sells a wide range of smart home devices, from doorbells and switches to lights and garage door openers. However, barely a few of those SmartThings gadgets worked seamlessly with Google’s Home app for controlling smart home gizmos.

Read more
The Google Home app finally has the big redesign you’ve been waiting for
Google Home icon on home screen.

A new, major Google Home design overhaul is coming soon to the delight of users everywhere. Many have been unhappy with the Google Home app's UI for quite some time as its streamlined approach to providing information seemingly took some agency away from smart home device owners. The new redesign, however, aims to give users more control over their devices and settings than ever before.

While the redesign certainly retains a more straightforward, minimalist look to its UI elements, the settings themselves are as abundant as ever — giving users full control over every aspect of their smart home. The newfound control doesn't end with more granular settings, however, as the redesign is meant to be fully customizable so that users can prioritize the aspects of smart home living most applicable to them.

Read more