Class action lawsuit filed against Google over Home and Nest hardware

What you need to know

• It's been reported that Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Kaplan Gore, LLP have served a class action lawsuit to Google over its "malfunctioning" Home/Nest devices.
• The report states that the devices' ability to understand and adhere to voice commands has continued to fail, causing strife for the consumer who purchased them.
• Since January, users have reported problems with Google's Nest devices and their voice commands, but a fix has yet to be delivered.

A federal class action lawsuit has reportedly been filed against Google's Home and Nest devices for being "defective."

The report about this class action lawsuit was highlighted by The AI Journal, which states the ones pursuing Google are those from Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Kaplan Gore, LLP. According to the lawsuit (Business Wire), both sides state that the Google Nest Hub, Google Nest Hub Max, Google Nest Mini, and Google Nest Audio have become faulty and have otherwise "malfunctioned" over the years.

The lawsuit lists a few issues, such as the aforementioned devices no longer "respond to even basic verbal questions." Not only has the Q&A portion of these Nest devices failed over time, but the plaintiffs state "widespread complaints" have been reported from consumers regarding failure to "interpret or act on voice commands, returning irrelevant information, losing internet connectivity despite a stable WiFi connection, and failing to recognize registered user voices."

The plaintiffs are calling this a "consumer case," one that aims to receive some sort of compensation for those who purchase these devices that have deteriorated drastically.

The report explains that user reports indicate that those who've purchased these devices have been forced to stop using them, since their main/primary function no longer works. The lawsuit argues that Google's unwillingness to fix these devices has caused consumers to spend "hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars."

The Business Wire post cites Darren Kaplan from Kaplan Gore, who states, "However, rather than getting 'smarter' and better over time, these Google ‘smart’ home devices get worse at their core function of analyzing and processing voice commands."

We can follow this trail...

The lawsuit also states that Google has been aware of these problems, considering users took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice their complaints. The company responded in kind; however, nothing worthwhile has come of that.

This federal lawsuit is quite timely, considering Google's been struggling with its Nest devices since January. Reports from the start of 2025 highlighted problems with voice commands, like "What's the weather," as mentioned in the lawsuit. Speakers and displays were involved in this (just like the lawsuit mentions), but Google stated a fix was rolling out, as user reports flooded all channels.

However, that wasn't the end of it. Jumping to July, and we still heard reports of users grappling with unaware and unattentive Nest devices. Users were so incredibly frustrated and raised their voices loud enough that Google's head of Home and Nest went on social media to personally speak with them. At the time, Google "promised" a fix, but there was the impression that a solution wasn't going to arrive until the fall.

Given the fact that this class action lawsuit has been served, it doesn't look like things have gone according to the original plan.