Google Home Mini had a bug that allowed the speaker to record audio continuously

Some copies of the Home Mini speakers given away by Google during the presentation appear to have had a bug that caused the devices to continuously record sounds from the living room. This has now been rectified via a software update.

The bug came to light when Artem Russakovskii of Android Police took the device home. He noticed that the speaker’s LEDs came on, even though he did not give the command to activate Google Assistant by, for example, shouting “OK, Google” or using the touch panel. After checking his activities, it turned out that Google’s server contained recordings of, for example, his TV sound.

Google has said that the bug was present on a small number of copies of the Home Mini. The company has released a software update for this, which makes it no longer possible to activate Google Assistant with a long touch. Originally it was possible to activate the voice assistant via the touch panel on top of the speaker.

There were cases with the bug where there was no actual touch, but the speaker registered it as such, after which the voice assistant was launched. Removing the ability to launch Google Assistant from the touch panel is a temporary fix from Google; It is not clear when a final solution will be found.

A week ago, Google presented the Home Mini at its own event. It is a small speaker with the ability to connect to Google Assistant. The device has to compete with the Amazon Echo Dot. The Home Mini has LEDs under the housing to communicate and can also recognize touches, for example to control the volume. Google releases the Home Mini on October 19 and the device costs 59 euros in Germany.