No matter how cozy your fireplace sounds or how peaceful the ocean sounds, Google Assistant has a selection of soothing white noise to help you achieve slumber, or at least it did. According to 9to5Google, the company seems to have changed the ‘white noise’ sound-much to the chagrin of regular users. People began noticing the change on Wednesday, complaining that chords were suddenly ‘much quieter’ and ‘muffled’, looping every 10 to 30 minutes instead of every hour.
In the Google Nest Community forum, one user wrote, ‘I thought I had clogged ears or something. I even tried a few different devices in my home before we found out it was an upgrade from Google. My toddler has noticed the sound change and now wakes during the night. Please revert back to the original noise. It was so much nicer’.
With Google Assistant, you can listen to a variety of ambient noises, such as the hum of oscillating fans and synthetic white noise. For hours of relaxing audio, simply say ‘Hey Google,’ then ‘Help me relax’ or ‘Play river sounds’. Unfortunately, last week’s update – complete with a quieter track and noticeable gaps between loops – has left adults and children exhausted. Between the Nest Community page and Reddit, the issue has garnered hundreds of comments in less than a week.
A Canadian user stated, ‘I play it every night for my toddler and she’s really upset about this change and doesn’t understand it. Please, let there be a way to get the older version back so we can maintain our sleep schedule and sanity.’
Someone handily shared the original sound to Google Drive, allowing the most desperate of users to take matters into their own hands by uploading the file to YouTube Music and casting it to their speaker at bedtime. Or, if you’re not fussy about the actual sounds, but just need some background noise to focus—YouTube has a treasure trove of options. Google did not immediately respond to PCMag’s request for comment.
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