Besides music and relaxing sounds, Google’s Assistant devices are frequently used for podcasts. However, a bug has emerged in the past few days that sees Google Home and Nest speakers play the wrong podcast.
Users are phrasing their commands like before, but Google Podcasts is selecting and playing a different show entirely that’s not even close in pronunciation/spelling. Making changes to the Podcasts menu in Google Assistant settings does not fix the issue.
The problem is primarily being reported by Home/Nest speaker owners, but those with Smart Displays are also affected. Fortunately, screens offer the ability to navigate to the “Media” tab and physically select an episode recommendation.
Examples include a request for the “How Did This Get Made” podcast returning with “How Did This Get Played.” Both of those shows happen to be on Earwolf, with NPR and other network mixups also occurring:
- NPR Politics Podcast –> The Daily
- Up First –> All Songs Considered
- Marketplace –> Here’s Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly
The complaints about Google Home playing the wrong podcast extends to the Nest Help forum, with one product expert escalating the issue and also asking users to leave on-device feedback via voice command:
I also am experiencing this with my subscribed podcast. I will let the Google team know by escalating your post to them. In the meantime, please leave feedback via voice to your speaker by saying, “Hey Google, share feedback” then record your message about the podcasts.
One possible workaround is using the Google Podcasts app (Android or iOS) on your phone to manually Cast it to the desired speaker.
More about Google Home:
- Google Home 2.34 adds real-time Nest Wifi usage and network history graphs
- Home Essentials: Nexx adds Assistant to your garage door, no subscription needed
- Fake ‘Google Home for PC’ Chrome extension fools thousands — why isn’t there a real one?
Author: Abner Li
Source: 9TO5Google
