Google Nest Hub Max

Had a Google Hub Max for 3 years. Was mediocre at best, good for digital photo frame and turning lights on and off. Connecting to Google Home initially worked, and then I added a second smart tv to it, and it totally trash the bed misunderstanding commands and simply doing something unrelated to the command given. Recently, it lost network… Read more

connection and can no longer connect. Google's online help is perhaps a contradiction, and less than useless, wasting alot of time following procedures that fail, such as simply connecting the device back to Google Home and my home network after a factory reset. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT, because you won't know when it will simply stop working and you'll have next to no support for it. I will never buy another google product ever again.

Not worth the headache. Have owned this alongside the nest mesh set for a few years and will remove it all as it made the conveniences I thought it would address more inconvenient. I’d also purchased a whole raft of smart home peripherals to automate and voice command mundane home tasks but tbh, it was all a waste of time and money;… Read more

ceiling/galaxy/headboard/exterior lights, TV, rice cooker, galaxy…etc.

After spending hours establishing numerous morning, after work, evening, pre-bedtime, party-time, movie-time, and ambient mood routines / scenarios, a single Google update rendered half of them useless (“I am unable to find this device. To establish a new device…blah blah blah blah blah”), and another eliminated the ability to change a scenario that switches my smart-Galaxy light on every night. Legit can’t deniable it without unplugging the device.

One example - I’d set a morning routine to turn on ambient lighting in my bedroom, the main living room lights, to tell me an inspiring quote or poem, then to announce the weather then news. It worked perfectly at first until an update occurred rendering quotes and poems irrelevant so it would explain that it was unable to complete whatever task each morning, at least for how I’d set it up and then they added loud advertising between every news cast.

Using voice commands is like talking to a teenager; 70% of the time it doesn’t listen or gets the request wrong. Forget trying to control Spotify. That’s a mental health inducing exercise at best.

The Hub’s interface was designed as an after thought. I suppose knowing that most people would use “hey Google” most of the time, little effort was given to the layout.

Only good thing is the sound. It’s clear, with reasonable bass. But, I have a Sonos system so that’s redundant. Oh wait, there was that whole legal battle between Google and Sonos that also de-grouped the functionality of Sonos from my Google commands…

I wouldn’t recommend anyone get this if their reason is to automate or voice control their home devices. It’s infuriating.

Stupid design – I like the device but it dumbfounds me why they made the mic and camera with just the one switch and not individual. You can't turn just one off, it has to be both or nothing, so idiotic.

Worked fine for two years then dead – I purchased a Google home hub max in December of 2019 now just the other day I noticed it stopped responding. It displayed the G logo on the screen. I turned it off at the power point. Now it won’t turn on anymore. It never moves from its spot and hasn’t been abused. These are terrible products not made to last. Google support is also no help at all. Don’t bother buying this junk. It will only last a few years then break Show details

Dumpster fire of a product. Avoid like the plague – I was so disappointed in this product. I couldn’t wait to get it home and try it out. But it’s just garbage. Took it back for a refund the next day. The pros - the sound quality is very good and Google Assistant was very responsive. The cons - - unable to make videos calls from the hub (it kept saying the contact did not have Google Duo) -… Read more

unable to video call “household contacts” added to the hub (same issue as above) - kept duplicating my name on the hub so when trying to video call myself (let’s say I misplaced my phone and wanted to locate it), it wouldn’t know which contact to use and regardless, it kept saying I don’t have Google Duo - could not put my telecommunications carrier details in to make phone calls in a different way - screen kept turning coming back on when I had it turned off - could not share photos from the hub (nothing happens). I tried workarounds such as showing photos first and then requesting to share, but it was still unsuccessful in executing the function - showing photos only showed a handful of the photos in my Google photos. So many pics were missing. - device needs to be plugged in at all times so not at all convenient to move around the house or manoeuvre in the kitchen to pull up recipes - users all need to have a gmail account to access it

I was also annoyed that we are also forced to download and use their video call platform, Google Duo. Both this and the Google Home app look like they were whipped together overnight by a random person off the street who has no concept of what a user interface should do or look like. The apps obviously don’t even know how to interact with each other properly, or with the nest hub.

Tried to get online support but got zero answers. Could only find workarounds posted by random tech bloggers. Sorry - but a product of this nature and price shouldn’t require it’s customers to find and conduct testing and workarounds to get it to do what it’s supposed to do. I must also add that we had to figure out ourselves how to turn on other settings such as notifications and hand gestures (by drilling down through the millions of settings).

Well no, I’m not actually sorry! What the actual f, Google!? Now I know they really are just taking the p*ss out of us.. the execs are probably sitting up there in their mansions laughing “let’s just dump out a piece of poo of a product and watch them eat it up.”

So do yourself a big favour and stay away from GoOgLe neSt Hub Max which can honestly just monch my butt. Google, I feel like we should be compensated for our time and efforts driving back and forth to the store for your poo-poo product. Petrol is expensive these days, you know. I felt sad too because my husband bought this for my birthday. Happy birthday to me, I guess, here - have a headache and a mini mental breakdown trying to use a simple product!

Good When it works – Didnt pay for my Nest Hub Max (Pixel 5 promotion) but unfortunately the item stopped working after a few months and I had to return the item. For those who are unfortunate enough to go through Google warranty process, just a heads up you need to jump through a few hoops before you can get anywhere and its hard to even find warranty support… Read more

information on their website. I got there in the end but the process has tainted my experience with google products entirely.

Terrible sound and no tone controls – The sound is boomy, doof doof style that makes listening to radio sound muffled. This model does NOT work with the tone controls in the Google home setup app and desperately needs a software upgrade to provide tone control.

Does not work with g suite account – You cant use this product if you have a g suite google account (https://gsuite.google.com/). Unable to configure the camera function with a g suite account. Not mentioned in the documentation. Waste of time.