In the rush to release smart speakers, there have been some hiccups. The latest is hitting owners of Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Home smart speakers and Chromecast media streamers. A Google Cast Wi-Fi bug is knocking out Wi-Fi altogether in affected homes by overwhelming their router. The only solution to restore the home’s wireless network is to reboot the router — although that does not prevent it from happening again. Google has admitted to the problem.
A technical issue like the Google Cast Wi-Fi bug is usually not significant enough to impact GOOGL stock. However, there’s a lot riding on Google Home, and GOOGL stock has been down by as much as 1.6% over the past day.
Google Cast Wi-Fi Bug Hits Chromecast, Google Home Owners
9to5 Google started tracking reports of a Wi-Fi outage in homes using Google Home smart speakers and Chromecast media streamers.
The smoking gun was discovered when an engineer from TP-Link (a company that makes a line of Wi-Fi routers and manufactured Google’s OnHub router) posted results of testing on one of that company’s popular routers.
During testing, it was discovered that when Cast-enabled devices wake from sleep, they can bombard a home’s Wi-Fi router with packets, overwhelming and disabling it. Normally, a Chromecast or Google Home smart speaker sends one of these packets every 20 seconds. When waking from sleep, it was discovered that they can send a blast of over 100,000 packets. This Google Cast bug cripples the router until it is restarted, temporarily knocking out Wi-Fi in the home.
Although initially pinpointed in TPP-Link routers, the Google cast Wi-Fi bug has been confirmed to affect routers from most manufacturers, including ASUS, Netgear and Linksys.
Yesterday, Google confirmed the issue, telling 9to5 Google that a “team is working quickly to share a solution.”
Why the Concern?
Smart speaker are the hot product right now, experiencing a growth rate that exceeds the level of consumer adoption of smartphones and tablets at this stage in those products’ life cycle.
Google is desperately trying to play catchup with Amazon, and it posted some impressive stats for the holidays. It’s claiming over 6.7 million Google Home speakers sold from mid-October through mid-January. That includes the $399 Google Home Max, which launched just two weeks before Christmas.
Those kind of numbers could move the needle for GOOGL stock and more importantly, the more Google Home smart speakers being used, the better that is for preserving Google’s all-important ad revenue as mobile search makes the transition toward voice.
The Google Cast Wi-Fi bug comes at a bad time. There is a flood of new Google Home speakers in use (so far more potential for affected owners), at the same time that Google is trying to build momentum — an effort that is vulnerable to bad PR.
You may recall Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) being in the news around this time last year when its Echo smart speakers were ordering dollhouses. That made headlines, but it was a relatively minor inconvenience that many people found amusing.
Google Home smart speakers knocking out Wi-Fi to an entire household? That means media streamers that won’t stream, smart devices including connected thermostats and security cameras knocked offline, game consoles kicked out of online play and no internet access.
That’s a little more serious and the scramble to resolve the issue has left multiple router manufacturers trying to patch the problem, while affected consumers fume. If not dealt with quickly, there’s a possibility that this Google Cast Wi-Fi bug could end up giving the Google Home a black eye just as the company was ramping up to take on Amazon for smart speaker domination.
And when you consider that rival Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is also preparing to launch its competing HomePod smart speaker…
As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
