Waking up early in the morning isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But thanks to Google, owners of Home and Nest smart speakers and displays can wake up to their favorite music or artist every sunrise.

This feature, dubbed media alarms, was added back in early 2018. Prior to this update, Google Home and Nest owners would wake up to a standard beeping when they set an alarm.

But with the support for media alarms, one can wake up to their music of choice. At the time of launch, Google mentioned that the function would be made available in multiple countries.

This feature is currently available in English (US) on all Google Nest speakers and displays, and English (UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore, India), Spanish, French (France and Canada), German and Japanese on all Google speakers as well as the Google Nest Hub Max.
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Of course, being an English-speaking country is always an added advantage when it comes to support for some Google features.

And expectedly, the UK was included on the list of countries that would get support for the media alarm function. But for some reason, this feature hasn’t arrived on the island country to date.

Google-Home-Nest-media-alarm-2
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The Google Nest support forum is littered with similar cases of affected UK dwellers who are unable to set their favorite music as alarm on their Assistant-powered smart speakers and displays.

As recent as April 2021, a community specialist came out to claim that Google is aware of this issue and that it’s currently looking into it.

Thanks for all your time being here at the Google Nest Community. @stuart wright, thanks for sharing the device details. @Adrian Butcher, apologized for the delayed response here. The team is working for a resolution on this matter. Keep updated by checking this thread or our social media channels. Your feedback is important to us.
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What exactly is causing this long delay is unknown to us. Google has also remained coy on this matter, opting against any detailed explanations as to why this is happening.

More than three years down the line and still no support for media alarm function in Google Home and Nest devices in the UK and no solid explanation is a strange occurrence.

But by now, many who have been following up since 2018 have likely given up. And they’re possibly right to do so owing to the latest developments.

As recent as early last month, a product expert directed affected UK owners of Home/Nest devices to the official Media alarm help page after confirming that the region is officially supported.

Google-Home-Nest-media-alarm
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But when I clicked on the attached link, I came across a different statement on availability of the function. For some reason, Google seems to have reworded the text, which now reads as below:

This feature is currently available in English, French (France and Canada), German, Japanese and Spanish on all Google Nest and Home speakers and displays.

As you can see, the updated availability info suggests that the UK is no longer among the regions that are supported for the media alarm function on Home and Nest devices.

Whether the likes of Australia, Singapore, and India also face a similar fate as the UK is still unclear. But the UK situation seems clear by now — that support is unlikely coming these sides.

Of course, Google hasn’t made any official statement to confirm this. But having pieced things together, UK dwellers might as well forget about media alarm support on Nest devices.

We’ll keep an eye on this and let you know just in case Google has a surprise for us.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Hillary Keverenge
2036 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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