The beloved Google Home Max will lose Sound Detection functionality on May 8th. Sound Detection, which requires aNest Awaresubscription, alerts smart home owners when their smart speakers detect a smoke alarm, carbon monoxide alarm, or a potential break-in.
Google is warning customers of this change via email. Notably, Google Home Max is the only speaker that’s affected. Other smart speakers in the Google or Nest family, such as the Nest Mini and Nest Audio, still support Sound Detection.
The warning email, seen below, doesn’t provide a reason for this change. But as9to5Googlenotes, the Home Max runs previous-gen firmware and has been discontinued for four years. Home Max still receives software updates, though Google will naturally prioritize current products over those that are no longer sold.
“Starting July 02, 2025, your Google Home Max will no longer have the sound detection feature as part of your Nest Aware subscription. Sound detection (which alerts you if glass breaking or a smoke/carbon monoxide alarm is heard) will still be supported on your other Google devices with your Nest Aware subscription.” - Email sent to Google customers.
Personally, I think that it’s foolish to remove Nest Aware functionality from a product that still works, regardless of that product’s age. A Google Home Max owner who pays for Nest Aware is giving$96 a yearto Google—why mess with a good thing? Just keep the boat steady and rake in the cash!
I understand that Sound Detection is a fairly minor feature when compared to Nest Aware’s security camera functionality. Still, the decision to remove this feature from Google Home Max speakers feels arbitrary and short-sighted. It also plays into a trend that Google Home customers constantly complain about—feature rot.
The Google Home Graveyard
Google hasarbitrarily removeddozensof featuresfrom the Google Home ecosystem over the last few years. And I’m not even talking about the features that were forcibly removeddue to patent disputes. No, Google has voluntarily reduced the capabilities of its own products. We randomly lost the ability to set media alarms and control audiobooks from Assistant-enabled devices, we can’t reschedule Calendar events with voice commands anymore, Assistant can no longer provide information about our contacts, Assistant can’t manage stopwatches—the list goes on and on.
Every time we report on the decay of Google Home or Google Assistant functionality, we pin the blame on Gemini. We assume that Google is neglecting its existing smart assistant and focusing its resources on the new, modern Gemini AI chatbot. But Google recently clarified thatGemini will not replace Assistant. And, after however many years of development, Gemini stilllacksso manyof Assistant’s core features(though it now handles someadvanced Google Home functionality, which is worth at least some applause).
Needless to say, this is a weird era for smart home owners. Old hardware purchases thatshouldwork fine are being sidelined for no practical reason. Core software functionality is falling apart but not being replaced, and AI chatbots have so far failed to lay the foundation for next-generation smart homes.
As someone who’s been screwing with this stuff for a long time, I really thought that AI chatbots andMatter platform agnosticismwould kick smart home devices further into the mainstream. Yet it feels like the late 2010s were the peak of smart home development and progress. Maybe it’s an issue of perspective, or maybe we’re in a bit of a readjustment period.
