Along with its new line of Pixel smartphones, Google introduced a new series of smart-home speakers at its October 4 event. The latest addition to the family, dubbed “Google Home Mini,” was made available for sale almost immediately. Reviewers were quick to get their hands on the product. Reviewers at Android Police claimed that the smart-home speaker was riddled with a bug. This was no ordinary issue as it commanded the speaker to record all the noise around it. This included the conversations that owners had around the product. It is obvious that Google does not intend on prying/spying on user’s personal space.
Therefore, the search-giant was quick to respond to the issue. After a thorough investigation, they discovered that the glitch affected a select number of smart-home speakers. Following which, they promised a software update, which would solve this problem. Home Mini is expected to compete with Amazon's Alexa smart-home speaker.
Everything you need to know
According to Tech Radar, in an effort to resolve this issue, Google has turned the ability to issue a voice command off. Users will only be able to activate (“wake up”) the speaker by using the “OK Google,” command. There is no extended use of the voice commands anymore. Meanwhile, the company is working on a fix to this problem. They have promised that the update will be available for use by October 15.
Google is expected to make its Home Mini speaker available for purchase by October 19. As noted by The Verge, users can tap the top of Home Mini, say “OK Google,” and then follow it up with their command. But some of the products, which are affected by this bug, began recording conversations right after being tapped. These snippets were being stored in the form of recordings in Google’s cloud data storage.
This is dangerous as hackers can utilize this to pry on personal details of individuals.
More regarding Google Home Mini
Users can control the volume functions through physical buttons provided on top. Google assured that these won’t activate voice recording in any manner. The company hasn’t said anything about whether they plan on bringing the “tap-to-talk” function back.
Google in a blog post said that the Google Home team is aware of the issue affecting a small number of speakers. They have rolled out the software update for the same on 7 October. Further details regarding this matter will be revealed with time.
