Google Home Reddit AMA ignores responding to the most pressing concerns

The Google Home for Web team recently hopped onto Reddit for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. After all, what could go wrong when you open the floodgates to a user base increasingly frustrated with a deteriorating smart home ecosystem? Apparently, the answer was “a lot.”

While the team did offer some nuggets of information on potential features like offline support (don’t hold your breath), expanded camera support, and better sensor integration, it was their ability to skillfully dodge burning questions from users that truly impressed.

Let’s be real here; it takes talent to host an AMA and then actively avoid answering the most popular, pressing concerns. Issues about Google Assistant features being unceremoniously axed, the agonizingly slow migration from the Nest to Home app, a forced switch to the less-than-stellar Gemini assistant were all met with a resounding silence that could be heard across the internet. The team did have a response for the lack of device controls in the Home for web app, though. They’re working on it, but with all the urgency of a snail traversing a football field, they have “nothing to share” regarding when users might actually see this basic functionality. To quote a disgruntled user, “This is an abject failure.”

Concerns about bugs like failing speaker groups? A polite brush-off in the form of, “We are continuing to invest.” Feeling a tad frustrated by the removal of core features while new ones no one asked for take their place? Don’t worry, they have a “vision” and a mysterious “roadmap” that only they seem privy to.

Now, let’s give the Home team some credit. They did admit to the difficulty of launching a new feature that excites approximately three customers while their entire system seems held together with duct tape and optimism. Unfortunately, that flicker of self-awareness couldn’t save them from downvotes. Queries about the painfully slow Nest to Home migration were met with vague mentions of “technical challenges,” a catchphrase as reliable as a Google Home device suddenly refusing to perform basic tasks. Users desperately seeking a sign, any sign, that Google plans to restore crumbling confidence in their smart home ecosystem were left with tumbleweeds drifting across the AMA thread. Seriously, was there anyone behind the keyboard, team?

Perhaps the most telling moment arrived when the team was asked about Google Assistant’s declining voice recognition accuracy. You know, a core feature for a voice-based system? Silence. Not even a half-hearted promise that they might look into it. This was also true when queried about support for smoke detectors in the Home app and Chromecast compatibility with Nest speakers that was promised nearly four years ago.

Google, sometimes the best answer is a simple, “We hear you, and we’re working to fix it.” Instead, this AMA left some users feeling like they’d wasted their keystrokes shouting into a void. Or perhaps even worse, that the Google Home team is fully aware of the issues and simply doesn’t have good answers. Yikes. Let’s hope the potential offline support materializes sometime before the next ice age, or Google Home users might just be better off investing in some very smart rocks.