Naim Streamers No Longer Work With the Google Assistant

(I’ve posted questions in several threads on this during the past three days without any response whatsoever, so I figure I need to be more blunt.)

Since I updated the firmware on my three Naim streamers (ND5 XS2, Nova, and Muso 2) the Google Assistant has stopped working with all of them. Instead, when I say e.g., “Hey Google, play Abbey Road on my Bedroom Nova,” the Assistant responds that I have no music devices in my Home. Of course, this is not the case. In addition to the three Naim devices, I have several Google Nest devices and ChromeCast Audio pucks, all of which play music on my command, as did the Naim devices before the update.

Additionally, the touchscreen on my Nest Hub can no longer control the Naim streamers, giving me the same error message.

I’ve tried the standard stuff - unplug and re-plug, factory reset, delete/reinstall Google Home app. I even deleted my Google Home and created a new one. Nothing worked.

For the record, ChromeCast still works - i.e. I can cast from my iPhone and my Windows 11 computer to the streamers. The problem is with the Google Assistant and Naim. My uneducated guess is that the new firmware is not identifying itself properly to Google. Google’s nonsensical error message is just one of those things software does, when it confronts something unexpected.

Bottom line - this is a feature Naim claims to offer, but it no longer does - at least in my set-up.

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Have you flagged this to Naim support? That’s the official route in, this forum isn’t monitored by Naim although several senior people do post helpful information.

Yes, I have a ticket.

My interest here is getting someone else to try it to see if it’s a problem for one or all. That was my request in prior posts, but nobody took me up on it.

So I decided to become a squeakier wheel.

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Ah sorry, I use Apple devices so can’t help here. I did add a couple of Qbs to Home years ago (mainly to see what it looked like), but have never tried the voice control so wouldn’t know if it ever worked.

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You may be the only person who tried to do this!

Certainly possible.

At present, this is a casual thing for me. If I’m in the dining room, I can tell the Google Assistant to play music on my dining room speaker (a Chromecast Audio puck attached to powered speakers). It’s nice if I can tell my bedroom MuSo to do the same.

But my eyesight (especially for reading) is slowly deteriorating. As a hedge (rational or not) against a time when working with a screen becomes difficult even with glasses, I took advantage of Google/YouTube Music’s free upload feature and loaded 10,000 tracks onto their server. These are all lossy and I suspect Google has substituted its masters for all those wonderful MSFL discs I splurged on. But they’re there. And they’re accessible using vocal commands. But as of last week, to play them on my Naim units, I’d have to attach an outboard streamer.

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Any idea as to the average time to get a substantive response. I’d be satisfied if I can find out whether this problem is unique to me (or a subset of Naim users) or whether it affects anybody who tries to use the Google Assistant after the firmware update. If the former, I will continue to troubleshoot; if the latter, I assume I will have to wait for the next firmware update (or a rollback).

I don’t I’m afraid, the one time I reported a fault to support it was an issue that impacted a large percentage of users and they responded within a couple of hours.

Well, this makes four business days with no response. The original acknowledgment of receipt noted that there could be a delay as they were changing computer systems, but the preliminary questions should be pretty easy for Naim to resolve - give a command to the Google Assistant and see if it is carried out.

Does Naim state in the manual that it has compatibility with Google Assistant?

Yes - in the promotional material. See e.g. the promotional material for the Nova:

The Uniti Nova supports voice control for Google Assistant and Apple Siri, making it easy to manage your music and entertainment, plus, the smart remote-control handset ensures that you can stay connected with ease. You can also pair Uniti Nova with other AirPlay 2-compatible wireless speakers via the Apple Home app, or with other Chromecast built-in devices via the Google Home app.

Besides, it worked before the firmware update.

(I have to admit that I never tried it with ND5 XS2, and it is unlikely that I will want to use the Google Assistant with that unit.)

@Stevesky - I’ll ask you again, can someone in Naim advise whether they can replicate the problem. I’m not looking for a solution - yet. I just want to know if the issue is unique to my system.

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Could you please describe the steps you did do before/after the upgrade that show a behaviour variation?

Not sure how to reply. Is this what you’re looking for?

Before the update, I could say e.g., “Hey Google, play WFUV on Bedroom Nova ,” and WFUV (internet radio station) would start playing on my Bedroom Nova.

After the update, when I give the identical command, the Google Assistant responds, “Sorry I can’t find any devices in your Home that can play music. You might want to check the device setting in the Google Home app.” There are occasionally slight variations in the response. But the music never starts.

Note - I have a number of devices in my Home that can and do play music when I command the Google Assistant - specifically, Google Nest devices and ChromeCast Audio pucks connected to powered speakers. And the Naim devices were able to play music before in response to a voice command to the Google Assistant up until I updated the firmware.

Edit - one other thing that happens from time to time is that Google marks the Naim devices as offline. At the same time, a clone of the device appears at the bottom where it needs to be assigned to a (Google Home) room. This also did not happen before.

Hi @jegreenwood

I think in the Google Home app you need to remove and re-add the device

So:
Pick the device - likely marked as offline/greyed out.
Pick settings gear in top right
Pick ‘remove device’
On home screen add it to a Room again

Hopefully it will then work.
Our support desk is typically best to resolve such things than here.

Hope that helps

Steve

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I don’t use Google Assistant, but I have the same issue with the streamer showing as offline in Google Home. Here is how it looks like:

I already followed the steps you described to remove the “old” device and move the connected one to the correct room a few days ago. But after checking again now, this is what I see.

Mind you, I haven’t tried to unplug/restart the streamer since the update. I’ll give that a shot.

I’ve done that several times.

However, all of a sudden, my Muso was working with Google Assistant this morning. Not the other two.

The more I read the more confused I get. Are you saying that you can ask google to play xx over your naim device. I was sure this has never been supported, so I have never tried it. But what is the hardware setup, from a phone iOS/android directly to Naim or do you have to have google hardware in the mix?
Since the second generation streamers support chromecast if something can be send to a chromecast device this may work, but not everything in Apple land works this way.

Claus

Naim clearly state support for Google Assistant in the Nova advertising blurb.

I have several Google smart devices (e.g. a Google Nest Speaker) to which I can direct commands to the Google Assistant. These include commands to operate another device in my Google Home.

I can use my iPhone/Google Assistant app as well, but it’s much easier for me to simply call out to a Google device.

As for whether it is supported, it worked before and is now working again on my Muso, but not on my Nova or ND5 XS2. Admittedly, I don’t think I ever tried it on the ND5 XS2 before I started troubleshooting this problem.

Have you asked Google Assistant? :thinking::wink:

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