Don't put extra internet connected microphones in your house.

I work for an un-named company that makes stuff that has google assistant on them. Initially we put hardware mutes and piped the microphones to physical hardware that monitored for wake up words locally and would then start piping the microphone data to the mother ship once it was heard. Google told us to stop that, only way to certify the product as compatible with Google Assistant was to pipe the raw microphone data to the mother ship 24/7. That was 5 years ago and I removed all devices from my house.

I have a fan plugged into a smart switch that I’ve set to turn off when I fade up my mic while doing my radio show. It’s the most glorious use of throwing the internet at a home appliance I’ve yet come up with.

These just dont need to be online. 90% of the use I have seen is timers and lights, like a half step above hello world.

There is a market for voice assistants that are local.

So Google half baked a product, pushed it to the public whether they wanted it or not, and now it's giving up on it replacing it with another half baked product nobody asked for...

Seems par for the course for Google

If they kill Home. I’m done with Google products. I’m heavily integrated into nest and Google home. If they kill it further. I’m out.

My how things have changed over the years! Why, when I was a young girl, we didn't have the internet. When we wanted to turn a light on, we had to write a letter to Ford Motor Co. (They were the tech of the day.) I'd write, "Dear Mr. Ford, please give us permission to turn on our light in the dining room." Of course then we'd have to find a stamp, then walk the letter down to the nearest post office. (That was faster than waiting for the mailman to pick it up from the neighborhood mail box.) Sure enough, 6 weeks later we'd receive a reply saying, "Fine, turn on the light in the dining room." The postman delivered mail in the morning, so we had to wait until dark to all gather around in the dining room and turn on the light with great ceremony.

We never understood why we needed to get permission from a company far away to turn on a light switch, but we were patriotic Americans, so we knew better than to question the process.

Not multistage, but it's a heat pump with auxiliary heat. I have multiple zones controlled by dampers, too, soni have two of these thermostats.

In all fairness, in the early days of Google Assistant it really was useful. It actually worked. Somehow in the last 5 years it plummeted. As in it stunningly and noticeably kept getting worse year after year.

If you really do swear them off, you will have dodged the next many bullets. They have made a solid pattern of killing off things we want. Generally, things we want don't make them enough money.

In all fairness, in the early days of Google Assistant it really was useful. It actually worked. Somehow in the last 5 years it plummeted. As in it stunningly and noticeably kept getting worse year after year.

I Still get their apps confused because of the stupid icon updates....or maybe I stupid and can't learn new things.

In all fairness, in the early days of Google Assistant it really was useful. It actually worked. Somehow in the last 5 years it plummeted. As in it stunningly and noticeably kept getting worse year after year.

I have been saying for years my phone was so much smarter in 2015. I don't know what happened. I could rename it talk to it and it was responsive and did what was asked. Crazy.

Amazon Alexa has followed the same trajectory.

My rule for home automation is that it has to work in a low-tech way. I get Zigbee switches for certain things, but they work as just a light switch if everything is down. This is not true of Phillips Hue bulbs.

I used to support the Home team. I saw them grow from nothing when I worked there. It’s pathetic what they are doing to everything.

Its about generating investor buzzwords and killing off beloved apps every 3-6 months.