Reboot Your Smart Devices: Google Home Infrastructure Down For Hours

The entire Google Home smart device infrastructure was reported to have stopped working worldwide. The web giant has remained silent on the cause of the glitch that affected millions of smart gadgets that remain unresponsive to voice commands, nor could the devices be accessed via mobile assistant apps. Google announced via their Twitter account that a fix has been released and will automatically be installed after rebooting the device.

[Read: Understanding the Internet of Things]

Users in the United States first noticed the problem around midnight of June 27 when the Chromecast icon disappeared from the streaming apps lineup, and Google Home, Mini, and Chromecast devices stopped working properly. This was followed by more complaints of the outage via Twitter and Google Home Help Forum from other users throughout the globe with the hashtag #chromecast after a few hours, as well as speculations that the glitch occurred after installing a featured update that added Spanish language support for Google Home devices. The company responded that they are investigating the said issue, and eventually released a statement that the fix can be automatically installed in six hours.

[Read: Google Home Mini speaker discovered eavesdropping on Home user]

Outages are just some of the concerns that internet-of-things (IoT) devices are prone to. Security remains a priority issue that should be addressed, as more users centralize and integrate use of smart gadgets for business and personal needs. Considering that these technologies can be connected for optimal productivity and performance, users and IT personnel also have to be up to date on the resources and technical requirements for managing their networks and securing it from threats.