Google Home users report assistant warning about automations stopping in May

Some Google Home users are starting to hear a pretty specific warning from Gemini, noting that certain automations and phone actions may stop working in early May.

The reports popped up in a thread on Reddit, where multiple users say their Nest speakers mentioned the change after running routines like “good night.” One user said the device casually added that automations would no longer be available “starting in the first week of May.”

The problem is that there’s no clear announcement from Google spelling this out.

A few others in the same thread said they heard the exact same thing, which makes it harder to dismiss as a one-off glitch. At least some of them are already using Gemini on their Home devices, so this doesn’t look limited to people stuck with Google Assistant.

What seems to be happening, based on both user reports and Google’s recent updates, is a slow phase-out of older Assistant-style features. Phone-based actions and certain location-triggered rules appear to be on the chopping block, with Google nudging everything into the Google Home app instead.

This isn’t surprising, though, since it lines up with how Google has been reshaping its smart home setup over the past few months. Gemini is no longer just an optional layer. It’s becoming the default brain across devices. And it behaves differently.

Google has been talking up things like more conversational responses and a rebuilt “Continued Conversation” feature. Anish Kattukaran recently described Gemini’s approach as a full conversational system rather than a simple voice command loop.

That sounds nice on paper, but it also means older, simpler commands don’t always work properly.

A few commenters in the thread are already talking about switching devices. One mentioned going back to Amazon’s Echo after getting fed up. Another said they don’t see the point of a smart speaker if it pushes everything back to the phone anyway.

The May cutoff, if it’s real, isn’t far off. And right now, the only place it’s being clearly communicated is through these voice prompts and scattered user reports.

Google hasn’t put out a clear explanation yet. That said, we’ll keep an eye out for any further details and will update the article.

Meanwhile, drop a comment below if you heard the same warning.

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