They say you can’t go home again, and for the moment, it appears you can’t call home to your Google displays or speakers anymore either.
Google Home users on Reddit have been noticing that the “Call Home” button in the Google Home app, which lets you directly call your Google Nest Hub smart displays or Nest speakers from a smartphone, seems to have vanished.
I don’t see the Call Home button on the Google Home app either, and the sleuths at 9to5Google confirm that after “digging through the Home app, ‘Call Home’ has completely disappeared.”
Now, are we just talking a bug here or has the feature been intentionally pulled? We’ve reached out to Google to check.
Introduced back in 2019, Call Home may not have been Google Home’s most popular feature, but it was handy for those who used it. Basically, Call Home let you place video and audio calls to your Google speakers and displays directly from your phone, making for a one-touch way to check in on your homestead while you’re away.
Also out with the bathwater is the Broadcast button, which allowed users to broadcast announcements through your Google Home devices. As 9to5Google notes, you can still broadcast messages to Google speakers and displays by asking Gemini or Google Assistant.
The Google Home app just underwent a major Gemini for Home makeover, which saw a rejiggering of the bottom tabs and the addition of a Gemini-powered “Ask Home” chatbox, which essentially lets you talk to your smart home.
While Gemini for Home is replacing Google Assistant for smart home control, Google has promised that Gemini will still be able to tackle old Google Assistant chores, including the free ones that don’t require a paid subscription.
Still, many old Google Home features have been unceremoniously dropped during the long transition from Google Assistant to Gemini for Home, and it’s seems likely that Call Home is merely the latest.
Back in March, Google dropped seven smart home-oriented Google Assistant features, including Family Bell, which allowed users to create reminder bells for family events such as breakfast or dinner time.
Another 17 Google Assistant features were deprecated early last year, including music alarms, step-by-step recipes, and stopwatch management.
This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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