The day Google Home and Chromecast went down

Google Home and Chromecast went dark Wednesday for many users worldwide, enough to flood Twitter with angry posts unclear why their devices were unresponsive. Users affected by the outage started tweeting in the early morning, with Google's @MadebyGoogle Twitter account still posting that they were trying to come up with a repair by the end of the workday.

Chromecast problems were preventing people from casting — sending digital content from one device like an iPad or iPhone to another, such as a TV. Google Home and Google Home Mini devices appeared to just not work at all.

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Every tech company runs into hiccups with their products, and earlier this year when customers started complaining about Google Home and Chromecast devices overloading their routers when they woke. As a result, routers dropped their connection.

Read more:

• Google Home and Chromecast devices blamed for Wi-Fi router failures
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• Google Home smart assistant adds three new Spanish

Devices do break down, even remote controls that run our ceiling fans or TVs. These don't render the gadgets they run, however, useless. As we grow more dependent on smart assistants to manage our lights, thermostats, locks, or other devices, though, we are at risk of losing more than a single remote control.

A home completely linked to one system is helpless when that network goes dark. As we choose which smart assistant to sit by our side, to help us manage the task of locking up, or letting in a delivery man, we will make choices based on trust — which device will be there when we need them, and which won't.

Sometime after 6 pm ET, Google tweeted that it had a "…fix for Google Home" and Chromecast which they said would "automatically roll out within the next 6 hours," expected by or just after midnight. They also suggested people reboot their routers if they wanted a fix to upload immediately, and closed their post by adding, "Thanks for sticking with us!"

(You can visit GearBrain's Here's everything that works with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa to learn more about what works with Google Home and Google Home Mini.)