Google makes ‘play’ and ‘pause’ buttons available again on Home Mini

Google is once again making it possible to play and pause audio at the touch of a button, having previously disabled this capability due to a mistake that permanently recorded audio. However, not all buttons have been made functional again.

Playing and pausing audio is enabled by long pressing the volume buttons. That possibility comes with a software update that Google has now made available in its Preview program, reports The Verge. The Preview program is for users interested in running beta software on their smart speaker. It is not yet clear when the regular software update will be released.

With the reintroduction of ‘play’ and ‘pause’, users can again play and pause at the touch of a button, and no longer have to give this command by voice. Previously, these commands were available from the front panel, but that remains disabled. The touch-sensitive panel on the top was disabled by Google in October, even before the Home Mini was officially in stores. That’s what the search giant did because it malfunctioned for some people and caused it to record audio all the time and forward it to Google servers.

It is not the first problem with the Home Mini speaker. Recently, it was found that the device can freeze if audio is played at high volume. Google says it is aware of the problem.