Having a Google Home smart device that’s not responding to commands kind of negates its main purpose. Some users say that the Google Home speaker (or display) is mishearing their requests while others state that the speaker/display doesn’t hear anything at all. We made sure to provide some instructions on how to troubleshoot this problem below.
Table of contents:
- Check the Microphone switch
- Reboot the device
- Check the network
- Retrain Voice Match
- Change the language
- Reset the Google Home device to factory settings
Google Assistant doesn’t respond on Google Home
If your Google Assistant doesn’t respond on Google Home devices, check the microphone switch, reboot the device, and inspect the network. In addition, you can retrain your voice match and change the default language to English (United States). Don’t forget that Personal results are locked behind a voice model. Only you can access your notifications, Google Photo Library, etc.
If none of those steps make any difference, reset the Google Home device to factory settings and try again after you set it up anew.
Tip: Use Google Routines to make complex requests easier to complete. For example, you can create a new routine or edit the existing Good Night routine in a way that the phrase (Good Night) triggers multiple operations like lights turning off, adjusting the thermostat, playing white noise, etc.
1. Check the Microphone switch
This is probably the most obvious step but make sure that the physical Microphone switch is set to ON. If your speaker or display (Nest Hub) can’t hear you, chances are that the listening is disabled so you’ll need to enable it.
The positioning of the physical switch varies but each and every speaker and display from the Google Home/Google Nest lineup has one. On the other hand, if you checked the microphone switch and the issue persists, try restarting the device.
2. Reboot the device
Google-made smart speakers and displays have a substantial uptime and only occasional automatic restart when there’s a major update. That’s why they tend to run into errors like Something went wrong error that commonly occurs for some users. Restarting the device should fix the problem for the most part.
To reboot your smart speaker or smart display, just unplug the power cord and plug it in again after 20 seconds. Hopefully, after that, Google Assistant will start responding.
3. Check the network
If the previous steps failed, make sure to check the network and ensure that the Google Home device is connected to a stable network. Usually, if the device has connection issues, you’ll get a response informing you that it can’t connect so you’ll know if the network is the problem. Still, we can’t eliminate the possibility that the device is indeed connected but the network is so slow that renders it unresponsive.
What you can do is restart your router, switch to the 2.4GHz wireless band, and ensure that the device is not too far from the router. In addition, make sure that nothing is clogging the bandwidth and disconnect some devices just to see the difference.
4. Retrain Voice Match
The next thing you should try to improve the responsiveness and recognition of Google Home is to retrain the Voice Match. There’s a chance that your speaker or display can’t hear the trigger phrase (OK, Google/Hey, Google) or can’t deduct your further commands.
The Voice Match is shared across devices and the simplest way to change it is on your handheld device, be that Android or iPhone. Here’s how to retrain your Voice Match in a few simple steps:
- Open the Google Home app.
- Tap on your Account at the top right corner and select Assistant settings.
- Open Hey Google & Voice Match.
- Select Other devices.
- Choose Teach your Assistant your voice again.
- Tap Retrain.
- Follow the instructions to record a new voice model.
In case Google Home is still not responding to commands, try changing the language.
5. Change the language
Google Assistant is available in 20+ languages and different regions but some features are limited to English. By design, the Google Home device should respond in the language that you’ve spoken. Sadly, it seems that some languages are not working all that great for everyone.
I’ve run into reports about issues with different languages that I never personally experienced with English (United States) being the only set language. That’s why we can recommend changing the language and trying again. Hopefully, secondary languages will be on par with English in the future. For the time being, it’s often a hit-or-miss experience when it comes to recognition and overall user experience.
If you’re not sure how to change the Google Assistant language, follow the instructions below:
- Open the Google Home app and tap on your Account.
- Select Assistant settings.
- Choose Languages.
- Add English (United States) as the Assistant’s primary language. This setting will apply to all devices under the same Google Account.
6. Reset the Google Home device to factory settings
Finally, if none of the previous steps worked, we can only recommend resetting the Google Home device to factory settings and setting it up again. Maybe the error is the result of a temporary glitch and resetting the device should sort that out.
You can learn how to reset your device on the official support page as the procedure varies. And, with that said, we can conclude this article. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share your thoughts, questions, or suggestions. As always, we look forward to hearing from you.
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