Google Home speakers will lose an important feature. The American giant lost the lawsuit to Sonos

The U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled that Google Home speakers have infringed five Sonos patents. The technology giant now has 60 days to bring its smart home devices into line with the court’s ruling. Unfortunately, he has no choice but to limit their functionality, and he started introducing some changes yesterday, informs The Verge portal.

The volume control will now be longer

The main innovation is the removal of the ability to change the volume for all speakers in the group at the same time, whether using the application, voice assistant or a button on the device. From now on, you will need to adjust the volume for each speaker separately. The change of users was not naturally pleasing and her announcement provoked a lot of negative feedback.

In addition, if you have speakers from other manufacturers, such as JBL or Lenovo, in your group, you may need to upgrade them to keep them running smoothly. Google also states that a small group of users will need the Device Utility to set up and update smart products. If necessary, you will be prompted to download and run it.

Google tries to keep the list of necessary changes to a minimum

The company has not yet confirmed further changes, but it is possible that there will be more in the future. Google concludes that it will work to minimize additional changes. Google 12 Smartphones were originally expected to remove the ability to control Chromecast volume via smartphone on Android 12. However, the January update seems to have returned.

Surprise! Cast volume controls have been re-enabled with the January 2022 update for Pixel. Google either settled its legal matter or this new method enables cast volume controls in a way that doesn’t violate the patent.

Here’s the relevant patch: https://t.co/trVx0zqhAm pic.twitter.com/mEZZy4FXn0

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) January 5, 2022