While there were understandable fears of radio diminishing in popularity with the emergence of newer media types, especially music streaming services, there’s still a considerable percentage of the population that continue to use radio services like SiriusXM, TuneIn, Pandora, and others. Google understood this notion pretty well, bringing services like iHeartRadio to Google Home way back in 2017, with internet radio making its way to the app in 2019.
However, the ability to play radio via Google Home or through Assistant commands was broken earlier this week. Google later acknowledged the bug, confirming that the functionality was broken for several users. We have some good news coming your way now, with Google saying it has patched this annoying issue, letting you get back to enjoying your favorite free or paid radio stations via Google Home or Assistant routines.
When trying to play a radio station, such as iHeartRadio, through a voice command, Assistant would respond by saying “I looked for iHeartRadio, but it either isn’t available or can’t be played right now.” Meanwhile, some users received the “Sorry, I didn’t understand” error, as 9to5Google found out. The original Google support page, which acknowledged the radio outage on Assistant, has since been updated to reflect the fix, with Google saying that “all radio stations are back online.”
It seems like the issue has been around for a while now, with 9to5 uncovering a Reddit thread on the Google Home subreddit dating back to February. Additionally, a post on the company’s Nest forum from mid-January also talks about the Assistant radio glitch.
Google didn’t say what caused the issue in the first place, though it’s clear that the outage was not just limited to one region. Nevertheless, people who were hamstrung by the absence of radio on their Google-branded smart speakers, displays, or any other Android phones, can now rest easy.
The Google Home team has been quite busy recently, adding new features to the mix, including support for more devices under the Climate tab, such as air conditioners, fans, heaters, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers. Separately, another update finally enabled users to control a wide array of smart home devices and appliances, which were previously limited to view-only under the Home app’s Devices tab.
