Google has promised to fix a bug causing its Home speakers to regularly dropout, following widespread user complaints.
Smart devices were meant to make our lives a breeze, so it’s entirely justifiable to fly into a blind rage when one of them doesn’t perform properly. This is (presumably) what owners of the Google Mini have been doing for the last couple of years, as their gadgets refuse to stay paired with phones and other devices for longer than two minutes.
Related: The best smart speakers for 2020
According to this thread by long-suffering owners, various Google Home models disconnect from phones, speakers and other devices at random intervals. Some poor souls have even found that this happens in the middle of the night, which prompts a loud bleeping noise to emit from non-Google devices as they attempt to reconnect.
A Google employee has now provided a very sparse update on the matter, confirming that “the team is aware of the issue and working on finding a solution.” There’s no firm date on when this solution will arrive, although the employee promised to return to the thread once there was some progress. We reached out to Google to see if it could confirm a time frame for this – the company didn’t issue an official statement, but told us that it’s working round the clock to resolve the issue.
Related: Read our Google Home Mini review
Users who are suffering with the issue are still advised to provide feedback. You can do this via voice command, by saying “Hey Google, send feedback” and using the keywords “GHT3 Bluetooth IN keeps on disconnect”.
Previously, some users have reported that the issue was fixed by clearing out the data cache on their app. If you want to try this yourself, open your phone’s settings and expand the app section. Navigate to the “Google App” listing and open it. From here, click storage, then clear cache, and then tap on manage space and clear all data.
If that doesn’t work, you can try going through a full checklist of possible solutions here.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.