Some Google Home users are reporting a frustrating glitch in the bilingual functionality. The feature, designed to help multilingual households, typically allows Google Assistant to understand commands in two different languages. However, reports are flooding in from Italian, Spanish, German, and French speakers suggesting that smart speakers in their Google Home setups are suddenly only responding to English voice commands.
Affected users have found a temporary workaround by switching the primary language for Assistant to English. While this restores functionality, it sacrifices the ability to interact with the device in their preferred language. These reports have only started appearing a few hours ago, which suggests this is a new issue.
There’s a new update to the Google Home app in the Play Store and iOS App Store that started rolling out a few days ago and is gradually making way to more users, so this could be the culprit. I haven’t received this update on Android yet. My Home app shows the last update was on February 28, which likely explains why my attempts to reproduce this glitch in my setup have been unfruitful. Still, the growing number of reports suggests there could be a concerning issue that perhaps needs Google’s attention.
“Starting this morning, Google home doesn’t see my devices when the language is set to Italian. If I set to English it finds everything just fine,” commented one Italian user on a Google support forum. “If I ask to turn off a light or tun on the TV it will tell me it’s not found or not configured. Exact same device will work if I change assistant language to English.”
Similar sentiments are echoed by other users across affected countries. Since many of them rely on the bilingual feature to seamlessly integrate smart home tech into their daily lives, this glitch poses a significant inconvenience that forces them to interact with their devices in a language that isn’t their first.
Google has yet to acknowledge the issue or offer any guidance on how to restore non-English voice commands on Home smart speakers since it only started happening a few hours ago. But as reports continue to surface, it is becoming increasingly clear that this isn’t an isolated incident and that swift action from Google might be necessary to restore the functionality that many households depend on.
Hillary Keverenge
2114 Posts
Tech has been my playground for over a decade. While the Android journey began early, it truly took flight with the revolutionary Lollipop update. Since then, it's been a parade of Android devices (with a sprinkle of iOS), culminating in a mostly happy marriage with Google's smart home ecosystem. Expect insightful articles and explorations of the ever-evolving world of Android and Google products coupled with occasional rants on the Nest smart home ecosystem.
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