I received a "how do you really feel about Google Assistant / Gemini" survey. I completed it honestly, which means I gave it a terrible review: like a lot of the people in this subreddit, I have experienced a terrible responsivity rate, some serious contradictions between speakers, and complete misunderstandings about activating routines. Since that survey, though, it seems to have gotten better about answering requests for lights on and for routines to run.

In fact, it now gives a little "dun-dun" sound after complying. I notice it shows up in my Gemini activity too.

That was pleasant. Fingers cross it will continue.

Overall, though, it is still nowhere near as useful as old "hey g00gle" on the non-Gemini speakers - I used to be able to ask "When is this movie coming out?" and "What time does Costco close?" and it would tell me without missing a beat. Ah well.

What would happen if they just threw up their hands, open-sourced the whole project, and let the open-source community in to fix it? Some would say that it would be less "secure" but would definitely function better, and the security would depend on all the contributors checking it for loopholes.

My Google Home Speaker (the new 2026 model) is stuck in a firmware download loop, and the replacement Google sent me does exactly the same thing. Is anyone else seeing this?

What it does

It downloads about 460 MB from Google's update server (edgedl.me.gvt1.com) roughly three times an hour, all day and night. That's about 35 GB a day.

The download completes. My router shows the full file arriving in about 90 seconds, in 10 pieces of 45.9 MB, with nothing blocked or cut off.

It never installs. It stays on system firmware 538897 / Cast 20260403_1026_RC17, and the Home app says there's no update.

The speaker itself works fine. It just keeps re-downloading.

What I've tried

3 factory resets on the original unit, including setting it up in a new home, as Google support suggested

Google sent a warranty replacement. The new unit did 5.9 GB in its first hour and has settled into the same ~1.5 GB/hour loop.

Ruled out my network: no firewall blocks, every DNS lookup answered, the download completes fine, and no VPN is involved

The odd part

Google's release notes list 3.78.540761 ("Improves network traffic") for the Home Speaker back in July, but both my units are stuck on 538897. My guess is the server keeps offering the update, the speaker downloads it, the install fails, and it starts over.

Could you check yours? Google Home app → your speaker → Settings → Device information → Technical information.

Which system firmware version is it on?

If you have router stats (UniFi, OPNsense, pfSense, Fritz!Box, etc.), is it using an unusual amount of data?

I have an open case with Google support, but they initially insisted 538897 is the latest version. Any reports would help show it isn't just my setup. Thanks!

I'm looking for a smart inline dimmer that installs directly on a lamp cord and works with Google Home.

Not looking for a smart plug or wall dimmer. Just a simple cord-mounted dimmer with smart controls.

I found the Tradim 6802W, but it seems to be available only in Europe.

Anyone know of a similar product that works with US 120V?

For me, it’s the massive thermostat card taking up 4 device slots just to display one big number.

Curious how everyone else feels: Are you guys mostly using the app or just walking over to the physical wall dial now? What’s your biggest pet peeve with the app?

Before purchasing, I'm wondering if anyone can confirm support is live for home key in Google Wallet.

Their website claims Samsung wallet is supported with Google/Apple wallet "coming soon". Every publication I can reference suggests support should be live in Google Wallet by now but I cannot seem to find any actual evidence of it working.

Is their website just out of date? I'd love to be able to unlock my front door with my Pixel 10/Watch 2 and share access to my girlfriend who uses an iPhone but I definitely do not want to have to shuffle around with 3rd party apps and would just wait to purchase until support is live.

TIA!

Since the gemini update regardless of factory resets or the routines that are set up (which at the moment are zero) my 2nd gen nest hub has decided that every day at random it will increase the volume to 10, which is either annoying or just straight up frustrating when playing music. I have tried factory resetting and even creating a brand new home location. But it still completely at random sets it's own volume to 10 and at this point i'm getting sick of it. This is also preventing me from leaving the nest hub unattended when playing music since I have roommates that have night shifts and this has already woken them up multiple times.

This week I got a prompt from Google to retrain my voice. I wasn't in the home app or anything, just on my pixel device.

I did the simple retrain and it's shown a big improvement in understanding me BUT...

I've also noticed the processing speed of reply is a fraction of what it used to be. I don't think that's down to a voice model, but either way, I'm happy it's responding almost instantly.