Summary
- Android 16 Beta 1 is causing widespread Google Home app crashes for many users, rendering smart home controls inaccessible.
- Common troubleshooting steps like reinstalling the app or clearing the cache provide only temporary relief, with the crashing quickly returning.
- This issue is being widely reported on Reddit and Google’s Issue Tracker, and Google has acknowledged the problem and is working on a fix.
It’s been roughly four days since Android 16’s first public beta dropped, and although the new OS release isn’t rife with bugs and issues, there are some that warrant a timely fix. These include, but aren’t limited to, inconsistencies when switching apps with the navigation bar, visual inconsistencies, and issues with apps crashing.
The most reported out of the bunch is a Google Home app bug, rendering smart home controls inaccessible for a large portion of users who’ve hopped on the first Android 16 public beta.
Related
I am currently running Android 16 Beta 1 on a Pixel 8, and the Google Home app doesn’t work for me. The app outright refuses to open, with it crashing every time I try to access it. This wasn’t the case with Android 15 QPR2 Beta 3. Several users are echoing the same sentiment on Reddit and on a Google IssueTracker thread. What’s worse is that the bug also disables the Google Home widget, with attempts to add the widget resulting in a “widget is not supported error.”
Some users have suggested uninstalling and then reinstalling the Google Home app, but that doesn’t seem to work for all users. I am in the same boat — the app worked for a brief moment upon reinstalling, but broke again soon after. Others suggest force stopping the app and clearing cache, but that too doesn’t seem to fix the app for me.
“This morning my Home app is back to crashing each time I attempt to open it. It’s as if it starts to open, then the entire app just closes without any sort of error message at all,” wrote one user, while a different user wrote “Reinstalling is only a short lived fix for me. Crash loops again after a little while.”
Some escape unscathed
It’s worth noting that the Android 16 beta update hasn’t broken Google Home for everyone. Even some of my colleagues at AP report that the app works as intended for them — regardless of their status in the Google Home app’s public preview.
For what it’s worth, Google knows of the issue and acknowledged it in an IssueTracker reply on January 23. “Thank you for reporting this issue. We have shared this with our product and engineering team and will update this issue with more information as it becomes available,” wrote a Google engineer.
If you heavily rely on Google Home for your daily smart home needs, I’d recommend holding off on the Android 16 beta update for now. If you’re already running the new beta, monitor upcoming updates.