Nest Audio owners suffering from Assistant playing the wrong podcasts

Nest Audio in Charcoal
Nest Audio in Charcoal (Image credit: Joe Maring / Android Central)

What you need to know

  • Google Assistant podcast requests are not working correctly for some users.
  • This primarily occurs when trying to play podcasts on Nest Home or Nest Audio.
  • No fix has been released yet, but the issue has been escalated in the Support forums.

The Nest Audio brought users a vastly-upgraded experience over the original Google Home, as you now have a sleeker design and improved speakers. It's also the latest speaker to provide quick and easy access to Google Assistant, without needing to pick up your phone just to turn the lights on. It seems that in some cases of a few Nest Audio owners, Google Assistant is not properly understanding requests to play podcasts.

Users on the Google Home subreddit, as found by 9to5Google, have been asking around to see if others are experiencing issues with Assistant not playing the correct podcasts. In some instances, a user would ask to play the NPR Politics Podcast only to have The Daily begin to play instead.

With those who are using the Google Nest Hub, it's a bit easier of an issue to rectify, as you can simply interact with the display to pick the right podcast. However, those using just the Nest Audio or some of the best Google Assistant speakers are left frustrated.

It seems that there is no official fix available for this issue, but some have found that telling Assistant to "Play the Android Central Podcast" from your phone ends up with the proper results. Another workaround is to download and sign in to the Google Podcasts app and then cast the media from your phone to the correct speaker.

Despite there being no word from Google as to what's actually going on, the issue has been raised on the Google Nest Help forums. One Product Expert has escalated the issue described but suggests leaving feedback through your speaker if the problems persist.

Andrew Myrick
Senior Editor — Smartphones (North America), Chromebooks & Tablets

Andrew Myrick is a Senior Editor at Android Central. He enjoys everything to do with technology, including tablets, smartphones, and everything in between. Perhaps his favorite past-time is collecting different headphones, even if they all end up in the same drawer.