Sometimes, just setting a plain-old timer isn’t enough. In the heart of the pandemic, Google aimed to make cooking a little more festive and enjoyable by introducing themed timers on Nest Hub smart displays that could pair the countdown with an illustration of the food you’re preparing. For the past few weeks, though, a number of users have been reporting that their smart displays no longer show these cute, custom timers.
While standard timers are working normally, a thread on the Google Nest Community site reveals that quite a few users are no longer seeing themed ones when attempting to trigger them, 9to5Google reports. Affected devices don’t display the animations and sound effects we’re used to getting from these themed timers. Neither factory resetting the device, nor changing the Assistant’s language appears to have any success at restoring them.
Some users experiencing the problem also note that it impacts multiple Nest Hub devices across their homes. While reports of the absent feature appear to be focused in the US and UK, it’s clear that not everyone is experience this issue — in our testing, we’re still able to set a cookie timer on our Nest Hub, just like you can see above.
More and more of these reports are still trickling in, though it’s unclear if we’re getting any closer to narrowing down a cause. One user notes the themed timers disappeared shortly after installing the Google Pixel March update on an affiliated phone, but so far there’s nothing to directly suggest this could be causing the malfunction.
The appropriate development teams at Google are reportedly aware of these incidents, and while we haven’t heard about any progress on a resolution for everyone, the ball is in Google’s court. For the moment, we’re just going to have to wait and see what the engineers are able to sort out. It would be fantastic to have this feature working again in time for the Pixel Tablet, which will likely debut later this year — maybe even at Google I/O next month.
