Since February 2019 the Google Assistant asks me to unlock my phone, when I try to manipulate any entity via voice command, for example “turn on lights in livingroom”.
I know there were some changes in GA a few months earlier (around November 2018): You could no longer unlock your phone by voice. However there is still some kind of identification as you can still make entries in your calender, etc by voice on a locked phone.
Since then I tried many things (checked all settings, reset my phone, posted in google forums, etc) with very confusing observations. Googles standpoint is of course: Everything is operating normal, contact the manufacturer of your lights, which in this case is Nabu Casa.
Here are my observations:
When I try to manipulate an entity directly on my locked phone by Google Assistant voice command, the assistant askes me to unlock my phone. Once I do, the required action is performed.
I can still manipulate personal data (calender, notes, mail, etc.) via voice on a locked phone, so the voice authentication seems to be setup correctly and working.
I can do anything on Home assistant (switch lights, etc.) as long as I use anything but my locked phone, i.e. unlocked phone, Google Home, Assistant on Google TV remote. So in general the connection and voice-authentication between Google Assistant and Nabu Casa seems to be setup correctly and working.
If I make the entity in question( light livingroom in this case) part of a Google Assistant routine i can still manipulate the same entity without unlocking my phone. For example, if I make turning on the livingroom light part of the “Good Morning” routine in Google Assistant, the light will turn on when I execute this routine.
These observations (especially 3.) lead me to the conclusion, that something device class specific is messed up with voice-authentication on the phone in Nabu Casa.
Am I the only one here using GA on Android, or am I the only one having these problems?
My previous post on this issue from two years ago did not get any response:
but I’m still suffering, as this has a major impact on usability.
For the last three years I mostly used scripts and scenes inside Google Assistant routines as they are the only thing that work, but sometimes I really whish I could just turn on a light.
I believe this all changed back when Google switched up “voice match”. It has been limited to only personal results since then, and routines are specific per user, so that may be why those work.
I read somewhere that Samsung’s voice match works, but that’s not going to do you (or me) any good on our Pixels.
I had to turn off my smart unlock (location based) to test it, as I’ve been using that when home for a few years now. And yes, it asks to be unlocked first when that is disabled.
Thank you so much! You are the first to answer in three years, I thought I was the only one using GA on mobile.
Just to verify. you are saying that on android, you can only access personal information, and since switching on a light is NOT personal, it doesn’t work?
Whereas on any other devices, you don’t have this limitation to personal results, and hence can switch on a light?
And I always assumed, it was the other way around and for some unknown reason, the authentication (Voice match) was not accepted by/passed to nabu casa. I have always found my lights to be very personal .
This makes sense, but is very sad, as there is no hope :.(
I haven’t setup Google Assistant for Home Assistant yet.
But what i can tell you is that if i want to turn on a light with my Philips Hue Gateway over Google Assistant it also asks me to unlock first.
So this behaviour is not just in combination with Home Assistant/Nabu Casa.
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