Google Home fixes are on the way for Gemini, favorites issues

When it comes to next-gen AI systems, we are, all of us, beta testers. For as powerful as they can be, they’re also notoriously fragile, and sometimes it feels like it’s all too easy to confuse them to the point that their output just becomes worthless nonsense. Gemini is far from immune to this effect, and even as users point out some of its more embarrassing failures, Google swears that fixes are in the works.

Ever ask Gemini something pretty straightforward — something that the old Google Assistant wouldn’t struggle at all with — and get a wildly off-base reply? It happens, and now with Gemini on our smart speakers and displays, users frequently share their complaints over on Reddit’s Google Home sub. Earlier this week, user could_be_any_person posted one particularly frustrating interaction, where they asked their Nest Hub for a simple word definition.

Instead of delivering the definition they expected, Gemini instead complained that it could only translate words into other languages, and that it lacked the ability to define words. As you’re probably aware, defining words is absolutely something Gemini can do — so why the miscommunication?

Well, to hear Google’s response: This is a bug. The company explains:

We are aware that this could occur, and we are working to fix this and similar issues ASAP. For now, if you experience this, you can say “stop” and it should get you out of this loop. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and will circle back once this has been addressed.

OK! Good to know! Although it doesn’t sound any less frustrating to get caught up in a loop like this, at least we can just tell Gemini to “stop” and end the madness. And with any luck, that fix will be deployed in the reasonably near future.

We can’t blame Gemini for everything wonky that’s happening with Google Home, though, and also over in the Reddit sub, user BodeNinja shares another Home glitch, with the app seemingly refusing to save any changes to your favorites.

While a number of other users chime in to say they’re experiencing the same issue, Google is already on top of it:

We wanted to update you that we discovered the root cause and are working to resolve this ASAP. We’ll circle back once the fix has rolled out.

This outcome sounds even more promising, since Google’s already identified the underlying bug. Hopefully we see both of these fixes hitting Home users soon.