Getting Google’s smart home tech to work optimally has recently felt like an uphill battle. Over the last few months, users have reported problems with common voice commands for Nest Thermostats, setting alarms, smart light controls, and a lot more.
What once used to feel like a premium and convenient experience has turned into a frustrating game of endlessly repeating commands, and users are, rightfully, unhappy. Google knows that, and it has alluded that a smarter Google Home experience is on the horizon — one that finally feels within grasp.
For reference, in addition to the various performance issues mentioned above, Google Nest camera users have long been encountering degraded camera feed performance. Users have been particularly vocal about the persistent “This video isn’t available yet. Check back later” issue for roughly three years now.
The error would normally show up when a user goes into their Nest Camera’s history via the Google Home app. The app shows that there’s been activity, but tapping on the event to view the footage would only display the error message, indicating that the video wasn’t yet available to stream.
“It would make sense if there was a delay in the video processing/uploading to a server. Perfectly acceptable to return an hour or 2 later to see if the video is available. However, when over 7 days goes by and the same clip is still displaying the same message, it’s likely a different issue than ‘uploading/processing,'” wrote an irate Nest Cam with Floodlight + Google Home app user, essentially echoing what several others feel.
Google’s super-delayed fix is here now
After several years, it looks like the issue finally landed on Google’s radar a few months ago, as its new release notes for Google Home 3.36 explicitly mention a fix for the issue (h/t 9to5Google).
Reduced “no video available” errors: Camera users will see fewer cases where a recent video is not yet available for streaming.
Even now, Google hasn’t provided a proper explanation as to why the issue took so long to address. Additionally, it only said that users would see “fewer cases” of the error occurring, which might suggest that the bug hasn’t entirely been resolved. We’ll update this article once we learn more about the fix’s effectiveness. For a larger sample size, let us know in the comments below if you’ve noticed an improvement, or if the error message is still as persistent as ever.
Other bug fixes introduced with the update include:
- Camera stream reliability: Fixed an issue where turning a camera off and on during a live stream would result in a “Camera Unavailable” error, ensuring the stream recovers properly.
- Setup interruptions: Fixed an issue that caused interruptions during the setup flow for new devices after QR code scans or setup code entries.
- Outdoor temperature display: Fixed an issue where outdoor temperature was incorrectly displayed on Android devices.
- Reduced app crashes: Fixed a significant crash related to suspend/resume partial functions, improving the app’s overall stability and reliability.
