A Sonos in the green grass, rather than in a Google Assistant smart home.

Photo: Adam Clark Estes / Gizmodo

Google and Sonos have been fighting for quite some time in patent court, and now, Google is blaming Sonos for several smart home gadget activation errors that have recently befallen Pixel users, even those outside of the Sonos ecosystem. Sonos, in turn, says this is all Google’s fault for infringing its patents.

Initially spotted by 9to5Google, a blog post in the Google Nest community forums lays out the issue that’s been affecting some Pixel users who also have Sonos speakers within their home’s connected ecosystem. Google writes:

Unfortunately, because of an interruption caused by Sonos, a small number of you using Pixel phones in the US and Canada may be unable to set up devices at this time. We are hopeful that this is a temporary decision that only impacts a small number of you.

The issue happens like this: if you have a device registered within your Google Assistant-led household that hasn’t been on wifi for a while, the Google Home app might ask you to reactivate the device once it’s turned back on.

It’s not clear from the post which smart devices or generations of the Pixel are affected by this issue, though it seems to extend beyond Sonos-made devices. Google mentions a fix for Google TV/Android TV devices. However, it doesn’t indicate whether this affects folks specifically with a Sonos speaker inside a smart home with other connected devices.

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Google offers a few fixes if you do run into this issue. You can use the Device Utility app to get your stuff back online if you’re outside the US or Canada. But if you’re in the US or Canada, you’ll need to call or chat with Google’s customer service for help.

I reached out to Google to ask whether this affected anyone who doesn’t have a Sonos device within their smart homes. Google responded with the same statement it offered to 9to5…….

Source: https://gizmodo.com/pixel-smart-home-google-sonos-patent-fight-device-utili-1849030091