BUG: Unable to see all OCF Network Audio Player type from Google Assistant

Apps & Clients
#1

Hello all,

do you have any Samsung Soundbar ? Do you still see it in Google Assistant/Home ?

Mine has disappeared from Google Assistant 2 months ago without any explanation.
I have managed to reproduce the issue at will with fake devices I have created from IDE (Graph API):
If I add a test device and set the type to “Samsung OCF Light”, then it shows properly in Google Assistant.
As soon as I change the type to the standard Soundbar type (Samsung OCF Network Audio Player), it disappears from Google Assistant.
If I change it back to Light type or TV type, it reappears.

Among other stupidities, Samsung and Google support have asked me to wipe my phone and restart my router… great help.

I have submitted a ticket here, hoping the dev will be able to fix it.

Can you please confirm if it is the same for you ?

Thanks :slight_smile:

1 Like
#2

A new version of the Google Home integration has been released recently. You might want to try with that again. Otherwise, just be warned. You cannot select the devices to be shared with Google, but all of them.

#3

Hello,
thank you for your answer, I have noticed the link process has changed while I was troubleshooting this issue.
I can confirm it is not what is causing this issue.

Have you tried what I described to see if you have the same issue ?
(create a fake device, set it as Samsung OCF Light, check that you can see it in Google Assistant.
then change the type to OCF Network Audio Player, and see it disappears in Google Assistant.)
This would be very helpful :grinning:

#4

Tagging @Lars

#5

Sorry about the confusion, the new integration had soundbar disabled at launch, good news is that we will shortly release it with full controls, e.g. media playback, input source, volume etc…

#6

Hi @Lars,

Is it why it was removed from Google Home without my consent or without me doing anything?
Does it mean it is not google fault at all?

If it’s true, this isn’t great but at least I would know why and I’ll stop losing my time with support services :wink:

Any ETA? I’m really missing being able to switch it on or off through Google home.

Cheers

#7

Hello again,

I have received a very surprising answer to the ticket I submitted. Please see below:

"Administrator

Hello, At the moment, speaker appliances are not supported by Google. To get more information about upcoming updates or device availability at Google’s platform, please contact Google’s support service. Is there anything else we can help you with? Best Regards, Erick. SmartThings Developer Support"

I hope this is a misunderstanding as it completely goes against what @Lars said. Can you please help?

Thank you

#8

In what way do the statements contradict each other? Both state that currently sound bars are not supported.

#9

To clarify, the new SmartThings integration for Alexa supports soundbars. For that to work both Alexa and SmartThings need to support it.

Google does not support soundbars but if, or when, they do add support, the SmartThings integration is ready for it.

#10

I’m only talking about Google home as I haven’t tried Alexa.
The Soundbar was showing in Google home and it was working fine until 2 months ago. Why do you say it is not supported?
Granted the only control offered were on/off but it was working perfectly fine.

#11

They contradict each other because Lars said that it has been temporarily removed by Samsung/Smartthings and not by Google and it will be added back with full control.

In the ticket, I was answered that it is because of Google that it is not showing anymore and that it is not supported, without any hope it might come soon, as Lars stated.

What is really upsetting is it was working perfectly fine for years since I bought the soundbar.
I controlled it almost daily through Google Home and suddenly “someone/something” took the liberty to delete it from my Google Home profile without any notice. Google answered to me it was Smartthings fault, and you are telling me it is theirs.
When it stopped working I saw the following in my Google Activity: “Soundbar has been removed”.
Since then, I have spent countless hours with both Samsung and Google support trying to fix something you removed without any disclaimer.
Unfortunately they had no clue of what they were doing until 1 guy at Samsung admitted it was above his competence and suggested to come here. I thank him, that was the only real help I received :slight_smile:
So I ended up here, hoping I would get a quick fix from people with proper knowledge about the subject.
I was quite happy with Lars first answer, and I didn’t mind waiting for the fix to be “shortly release”, but apparently, it will never come unless Google decides to push it.

Is there any way to have it back as before ? I was only able to control the on/off status, but that was better than nothing at all. Is there any trick using https://graph.api.smartthings.com/ to display it as a “on/off switch” like before ?

Thank you for your help :+1:

1 Like
#12

Sorry, I understand what you are saying now.

Neither SmartThings nor Google is trying to assign fault. As you are aware since you were using it, previously the Google Assistant integration with SmartThings would discover the sound bar device with a device handler of “Samsung OCF Network Audio Player”. The integration offered limited functionality for controlling the sound bar, but as you’ve noted, being able to switch the device on/off via Google Home fulfilled your needs.

I understand feeling that something was taken from you. The nature of the integration is that as you add and remove devices in SmartThings which are supported by the Google integration, those devices are automatically added and removed from the Google integration. Supported devices are added and removed automatically in an effort to effortlessly link SmartThings to Google. When support for these devices was removed several months ago, the device was automatically removed by the integration which resulted in your device disappearing from Google Home.

This automatic action definitely had the opposite effect of making your life easier as you have spent great amounts of time trying to figure out what happened. For that I apologize. Had this change been better communicated I imagine you would still be disappointed but less frustrated. Hopefully your negative experience can be used to encourage more communication in the future.

The unfortunate news is that there isn’t a workaround or trick to getting the device to display as before. The good news, as Lars noted, is that the removal is only meant to be temporary and the goal is to offer even more control of these devices through the Google integration. When support for the device is returned, the device should automatically be discovered by Google Assistant which will give you control via Google Home that you desire.

#13

This issue is affecting me too, and countless other consumers on other forums who have purchased this premium product for its Google Assistant connectivity. Revoking access on such a premium product without advice when we each have Samsung accounts linked to working email addresses is extremely poor. Can we please have this resolved in June 2020? We’ve waited long enough.

#14

Hello @Brad_ST ,

thank you for your answer.
While I disagree with the outcome, I understand your answer and I believe you understood me perfectly now :wink:

Could you please give me an ETA about restoring the soundbar in Google Home ? Even if it is no precise.
Are we talking about 2020 at least ?

I have found some other people complaining about this issue. Can it add more weigh to it if they come here ? Can it speed up the process ?

Thank you

#15

Hello @Nick_Exi,

How did you end up here ? I kind of felt alone “against” Samsung and Google.
Do you have other URL showing people complaining about this ? I didn’t find anything at the time, that’s why I ended up here.
I thought something was wrong with my account.

I’m with you on this issue, unfortunately I don’t see how we can help to restore the soundbar in Google Assistant. I’m still not sure if the problem is caused by Google or by Samsung. This was not clear.

If only we could get an ETA, that would help a lot.

What do you think ?

1 Like
#16

Please fix this, it would add great value to your products…

#17

Hi @megosu,

You’re definitely not alone in this topic.
I recently bought the HW-Q70R soundbar also for its Google Home features.
Little did i know…

Samsung is still marketing as if it works, though they already know it is not. That’s what I think is the biggest problem. I wouldn’t have bought the soundbar if it couldn’t connect to Google.

#18

I believe the issue is a lot of people are misguided by both Samsung and Google support.
Their agents have no clue of what they are talking about, and you really need to push it and be persistent to arrive on such “dev” forum.

I’m sure there are plenty more people suffering this unilateral choice to remove the soundbars from Google Assistant, and to this day, I still don’t know if it is coming back any time soon or in a distant future/never…

There is no real communication about this, which I find very unfortunate from a big brand like Samsung.

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