Today, the team behind the Google Home experience is conducting an AMA (short for “Ask Me Anything”) on Reddit. The team posted the AMA message about two hours ago and will begin responding at 12:00 PM PT. Hopefully the team is ready because trouble is brewing.
A large portion of the questions so far have been laced with criticism and negativity, some of which is pure anger. Here are some highlights (highlights?):
- What’s it like to roll out a feature that…well, might make some users happy, while the entire platform is falling apart, feeling outdated, and people are having absolutely horrible experiences everywhere?
- Why doesn’t broadcast work? Why remove a feature that people love? Why add new features instead of fixing existing ones? Why not start an AMA by just browsing through the many complaint threads on the subreddit? People want answers to these questions.
- Can you elaborate on what programs or initiatives are in place to help users like me regain confidence in Google Home? Are these users who purchased based on advertising and actual functionality, only to withdraw their investment due to routine plans to remove the feature?
- How long will it take before Google kills these products? I want to try and sell them before they become paperweights of broken dreams.
- When can I get rid of my Nest apps?
- Given how bad the Google Home/Nest products have become lately, you guys are brave enough to do this here. I have a feeling this post is going to turn into a barbecue feast very quickly.
Four members of the Google Home team, including two product managers and two engineers, will answer such questions. They obviously have their work cut out for them. Hopefully they don’t just skip all the critical questions and focus on the milder ones. However, at least 50% of the questions so far have been quite severe, making it difficult to ignore them.