Google’s internet-connected speakers are apologising for being somewhat less “smart” than normal.
The Home devices are responding to queries by saying “there was a glitch” or “sorry, something went wrong”.
Users worldwide are being instructed to “try again in a few seconds”, only to face a repeat of the problem.
A spokeswoman for the tech giant acknowledged the setback and said that some of its TV-streaming Chromecast dongles had also been affected.
The malfunction is now in its second day.
The search giant has been communicating its efforts to resolve the problem via its MadebyGoogle Twitter account.
It has tweeted that Google’s engineers believe they have created “a fix” but that there has been a delay in rolling it out.
However, users have been advised that they should be able to get their devices back online by forcing a reboot.
The cause of the problem has yet to be disclosed.
Missed alarms
Social media reports indicate that there was an initial surge in the number of people reporting related error messages at about 09:00 BST on Wednesday.
In several cases, users first noticed the problem because the speakers had failed to play a wake-up alarm.
Some have already reported that affected kit has returned to normal, but many others say problems are continuing.
The malfunction comes a day after the Home speakers began handling Spanish-language queries.
Google is also in the process of rolling out Continued Conversation – a facility that keeps a Home speaker’s microphone live for eight seconds after a query to permit follow-up commands, letting users avoid having to repeat a wake word.
However, it is not clear whether these updates contributed to the issue.
Google is not the only tech firm to have experienced disruption.
Users of the work-based chat service Slack were unable to log in to the service for much of Wednesday.
However, the San Francisco-based company has indicated that the problem has been resolved.
Source: BBC news
