It could be the worst smart speaker communication issue when Google Assistant says, “Sorry, I don’t understand.”
Google Assistant users face “Sorry, I don’t understand” issue
Google Assistant has been functioning weirdly on various smart home devices, according to the affected users. The virtual assistant keeps saying “Sorry, I don’t understand” whenever a user gives a command, whether successful or not. People have tried different methods to get rid of this issue. This includes turning the home off and on, reinstalling, and resetting the device but the issue remained consistent.
“My device is doing the same thing and I’ve unlinked and relinked my accounts, forgot and reinstalled device, reset, turned off and on – and no matter the command with streaming it’ll take my command – say it’s going to do it – then say “Sorry I don’t understand” in place of the music starting, etc.” Google Assistant Help
“We have had this exact same issue with an Onkyo VC-GX30. It completes all requests correctly but about somewhere between 2 to 12 seconds later says Sorry, I don’t understand” Google Assistant Help
“My issues started on February 11. I checked my history and “what time is it ?” was working on February 10, but on February 11 my Google Home started responding with sorry I don’t understand.” Google Assistant Help
Apparently, several devices particularly speakers are showing this bug such as Google Home, Android Auto, Onkyo VC-GX30, LG Meridian, and many more. Furthermore, the issue has been widespread for quite a while. It was escalated to the Google Assistant support team couple of months back.
“This has been escalated to the Google product team for further investigation.” Diamond Product Expert
However, there is no official update from the Google product team even after two months and a series of reports are still coming in.
Users suggested few workarounds
Some users have found a couple of solutions that worked for them. They might help you as well until a stable fix rolls out.
1. Change Assistant language:
“One interesting finding is that when I switch the assistant to English Canada’s language, PR results works. I can confidently say that this behavior happens when the English (USA) is selected in language, and personalize results are ON.” Google Assistant User
2. Change keywords:
“I was wondering if it was software or keywords that it was having issues with so instead of “take me to” or “navigate to” use “GO TO.”
Has been working for me with that keyword instead. Hope this resolves the issues for people.” Google Assistant User
