Google Home users who’ve been tearing their hair out over broken lighting controls may finally have some relief in sight. After a wave of complaints over the past week, Google confirmed it has begun rolling out a fix for the voice command issues that have left many people unable to control specific lights or rooms (Source: 9to5Google).
The patch is on the way
Kind of, for some people, but maybe not everybody
The problem cropped up late last week, with users across Reddit and Google’s Nest forums reporting that Assistant would either ignore commands or misfire entirely. Broad commands like “turn off all lights” continued to work, but the moment you tried something more targeted — like turning on the bedroom lamp — Google Home seemed to shrug and move on.
Google acknowledged the issue over the weekend and initially told users to sit tight. Now, the company says a patch is hitting affected devices. “We’ve started to roll out a fix for the issue impacting the ability to target and control some lights using voice commands,” the official Google Nest account wrote. Still, Google admits some users may continue to see ongoing problems, and it’s asking for feedback through a dedicated support page.
In the meantime, workarounds have been circulating. Some users report success by reconnecting their smart light services through the Google Home app: head to the “Works with Google” section and re-link the account. Others recommend the “Hey Google, sync devices” command, which forces a refresh of linked services.
This isn’t the first time lighting controls have gone sideways. Just a month ago, a bug temporarily prevented Google Home users from changing the colors of their smart lights. That one was patched fairly quickly, but the frequency of these breakdowns has many questioning whether Google Home’s current Assistant backbone is up to the task.
The future of Google Home and its questionable consistency
The bigger issue is that Google Home feels increasingly unreliable compared to competing smart home ecosystems. As we noted in yesterday’s coverage, even basic voice commands like setting alarms have been flaking out for some users. With Gemini now replacing Assistant across Android phones and even Wear OS, the gap in performance is becoming more glaring.
The real fix might not come until Gemini makes its way to Nest speakers later this year. Until then, Home users are stuck riding out these glitches as they happen — and they’ve been happening a lot. Complaints about Home’s performance stretch back well before this latest mess. In fact, over a year ago, Google Nest’s own Reddit AMA was dominated by frustrated users venting about broken features and half-baked fixes. This week’s lighting fiasco is just the latest entry in a long-running saga.
