Some Google Home users getting replacements over random activation issue

Remember the Home Mini incident where the smart speakers were found randomly waking up, recording, and transmitting user conversations to Google’s servers.

Given the seriousness of the matter, Google quickly took hold of the situation, fixing things up by removing the device’s top touch functionality.

Back then, the company claimed that the problem affected only a small number of Home Mini devices – the ones distributed at the Made by Google events.

But, looks like that’s not the case. The issue – random wake ups at least – isn’t limited to Home Mini devices only.

Google Home randomly activates

What’s now coming to light is that even some Google Home units get randomly activated – multiple times during day and night – without anyone uttering the hot word or, in some cases, any conversation going around the device.

Affected users say:

I have heard this go off in the living room in the middle of the night before. It also happens MANY times throughout the day. But i cannot say for sure if its just a bug/issue, or if maybe google home thought it heard a keyword from TV or the wife and I talking. But in the middle of the night, it is very very obvious that this is a bug/issue. There is no sounds on during the hours of 10pm and 6:30am. what could possibly be making the google home react? its not the same google home either, sometimes its the one in the living room, sometimes the kitchen, or sometimes the bedroom. This has been happening for a couple months now, getting more and more frequent. – Reddit

It happens all the time, regardless of TV or music. It triggers even over a normal conversation. It’s even gone off when nobody’s home, and in the middle of the night. Every time it triggers it shows up in Activity page of home app. Defective unit? –Twitter

Over the last month, the Google Home unit in my home will wake me (to be fair I have the volume level set very high so the voice of my Google Home unit wakes me instantly) with random queries.

No TV or Radio turned on that might incidentally have a commercial that triggers Google Home. For example,, last night I was woken to Google Home very loudly giving me a list of the 3 closest Cardioligists to me. A week or so ago, my Google Home unit woke me playing Jazz music.

I should also note that it’s not always while I’m asleep. Once I came home, and as I’m walking in the front door I could hear my Google Home unit was just finishing up giving me a weather forecast for the next few days. – Google Home help forum

Users haven’t shared whether their Home units are also transmitting their conversations or not. But, they have shared what these random wake-ups convey on the activity page:

Google is giving replacements

What’s good is that Google is giving replaced Home units to those affected. We’ve found at least one such case, and likely there will be more.

https://twitter.com/mitch_freebird/status/1021442468749893633
https://twitter.com/madebygoogle/status/1022563060144173056

Note: The user who has been issued a replacement had their Home device in warranty. There’s lack of clarity about how the company will entertain the out of warranty devices plagued with same issue (if there are any).

In case your Google Home is also waking up randomly, we suggest you to reach out to the company for they may replace your unit (but only after confirming things at their end). Good luck!

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.