Products · Product
Google Assistant
Raised as a usability problem by 183 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2012–2026), in 142 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Voice commands are often misrecognised while drivingUnreviewed
20122026- Fixing wrong voice command results takes more effort than the time it saves2024-01-12
- Voice commands often misrecognized, forcing repeated yelling to turn lights on or off2023-05-05
- Voice input fails often for people with accents, forcing typing instead2023-04-27
Assistant wakes falsely in conversation and the wake word cannot be changedUnreviewed
20122026- Assistant wakes accidentally during conversations and silently fails or lingers when deliberately invoked2025-01-04
- Randomly demands phone unlock for music while driving, screen stays on unpredictably2024-08-13
- Triggers falsely every few days, interrupting videos and music unexpectedly2023-01-16
Voice requests need exact phrasing or return a search results pageUnreviewed
20122026- Voice call to a contact name dials web search results instead of the contact2025-10-08
- Voice texting forces permissions for web and search history, a harder path to basic tasks2022-11-23
- Can't tell which voice phrasings work, so most requests fail to be understood2019-10-25
Cannot fully turn off assistant, which keeps interrupting audioUnreviewed
20122026- Can't fully turn off the assistant; it keeps interrupting audio with prompts2024-05-17
- Keeps showing a popup to turn on Assistant every time earphones connect2024-01-12
- Assistant keeps popping up asking to enable it despite being disabled2022-02-21
Users cannot tell what the voice assistant can and cannot doUnreviewed
20122026- Gemini-based assistant no longer reliably understands simple memorized voice commands like turning on lights2026-10-03
- Users can't tell what the voice assistant can and can't do2024-01-12
- Users can't tell what the assistant can do2023-11-16
Play Release Radar voice command plays a wrong albumUnreviewed
20122026- Voice commands misfire: opens wrong device, wrong playlist, stops music, can't send messages2024-01-10
- Voice command 'play Release Radar' plays a wrong album instead of the playlist2020-12-02
- Voice request plays the wrong playlist about 60% of the time2020-09-10
Screen locks after each command, forcing unlock before the next taskUnreviewed
20122026- Assistant can't take commands from lock screen or basic commands while driving2020-09-30
- Voice command silently fails on locked phone, requiring unlock and retries while driving2019-04-30
- Locks screen after each command, forcing unlock before the next voice task while driving2016-03-08
Voice reminders open Calendar app, needing many more steps to setUnreviewed
20122026- Tapping to edit a reminder opens the voice assistant slowly instead of an edit screen2023-05-07
- Simple voice reminder requests now fail so often the user stopped trying2023-02-06
- Reminders in the Google app and Assistant are a mess2020-01-12
Search results are poor when assistant is used deliberatelyUnreviewed
20122026- Mic button in search bar now runs Google search instead of Assistant, so users keep triggering the wrong function2026-05-12
- Search results are poor when the user deliberately uses the assistant2021-10-24
- Assistant only works well when search history settings are enabled2018-05-08
Cards appear unpredictably with no option to stop recurring onesUnreviewed
20122026- Cards appear unpredictably and offer no option to stop recurring ones2016-06-02
- Cards appear unpredictably and there is no way to summon them manually2013-11-25
- Unwanted cards pop up constantly and must be dismissed when making a call2012-06-28
Natural speech triggers unintended actionsUnreviewed
20122026- Composing routines from others is clumsy and forces strangely phrased voice triggers to work2022-11-26
- Fails to recognise user's speech due to speech impediment, forcing repeated attempts2022-05-30
- Natural speech triggers unintended actions, so the user gives up after a few tries2016-06-29
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Setting a timer forces users into Gemini and data collection2026-11-03
- Gemini-based assistant no longer reliably understands simple memorized voice commands like turning on lights2026-10-03
- Scrolling to the right month and date in the calendar UI is more cumbersome than speaking the event2026-08-17
- No way to learn timer options or see remaining time by voice2026-06-16
- Mic button in search bar now runs Google search instead of Assistant, so users keep triggering the wrong function2026-05-12
- Voice timers and light commands fail, forcing manual fixes and wasted effort2026-05-01
- Voice assistant misidentifies which lights to control and misreads TV play commands2025-12-10
- Asks 'Which one?' for the only light and struggles to play music on the right speakers2025-12-09
- Alarm command stopped working after update; it just runs web searches instead2025-12-01
- Simple music command blocked until user enables Gemini data activity; must agree to wall of text2025-11-30
- Voice timer setting stopped working reliably, so user can't rely on it2025-10-30
- Three different ways to open the assistant cause accidental triggers2025-10-11
- Voice call to a contact name dials web search results instead of the contact2025-10-08
- Assistant has gotten worse and is nearly useless except for driving directions2025-03-17
- Voice assistant fails to recognise non-English names and reads non-English texts badly2025-02-10
- Assistant wakes accidentally during conversations and silently fails or lingers when deliberately invoked2025-01-04
- Status text on the wallpaper is sometimes unreadable and can't be toggled off2024-12-11
- Timer silently disappears if the phone is used during the spoken confirmation2024-11-30
- Switched over without consent and stopped working for queries it used to handle2024-10-25
- Gemini-based assistant can no longer control Sonos speakers that old Assistant could2024-10-25
- Assistant now fails at smart home, navigation and messaging commands it used to handle2024-10-25
- Hard to tell which feature was enabled and how to turn it off2024-10-25
- Randomly demands phone unlock for music while driving, screen stays on unpredictably2024-08-13
- Confusing OK/Cancel labels make it unclear what clicking will actually do2024-06-03
- Can't fully turn off the assistant; it keeps interrupting audio with prompts2024-05-17
- Can't interpret two-part requests like turning off two rooms' lights2024-05-13
- Commands are undocumented, unreliable, and randomly stop working without explanation2024-01-13
- Disabling the assistant requires digging about five menus deep through settings2024-01-12
- Voice assistant frequently malfunctions and does annoying things2024-01-12
- Misrecognizes contacts and spelled street names, replacing what the user said2024-01-12
- Fixing wrong voice command results takes more effort than the time it saves2024-01-12
- Users can't tell what the voice assistant can and can't do2024-01-12
- Keeps showing a popup to turn on Assistant every time earphones connect2024-01-12
- Voice timer command returns a YouTube video instead of setting a timer2024-01-12
- Voice request to start home directions offers no hands-free way to confirm starting the route2024-01-11
- Trigger word is iffy at times, responds unreliably2024-01-11
- Asking for the time returns Wikipedia articles or movie titles instead of the time2024-01-11
- Voice commands misfire: opens wrong device, wrong playlist, stops music, can't send messages2024-01-10
- Users can't tell what the assistant can do2023-11-16
- Voice assistant activates at random times, forcing the user to disable the app2023-11-02
- Long-pressing power opens Assistant instead of the power-off menu2023-11-02
- Assistant confirms a timer on screen but no timer actually starts2023-10-24
- Launching the assistant just prompts to configure it as default2023-10-06
- Google Assistant works terribly on Sonos speakers2023-09-11
- Misunderstands speech, randomly self-triggers, and is slow because recognition runs in the cloud2023-06-28
- Google Assistant is borderline unusable in its current state2023-05-10
- Tapping to edit a reminder opens the voice assistant slowly instead of an edit screen2023-05-07
- Voice commands often misrecognized, forcing repeated yelling to turn lights on or off2023-05-05
- Misunderstands requests, cuts off first word, and replies very slowly2023-04-27
- Voice input fails often for people with accents, forcing typing instead2023-04-27