Why is my Nest speaker making a ringing sound before it gives a reply? This is the first time I have ever noticed it and it just feels like another piece of nonsense added to the list of issues I already have with these speakers.
Unfortunately I bought one for almost every room in the house, so I have nearly a thousand dollars invested in this setup.

To be honest, I barely use them anymore because they only seem to work at about ten percent of what they could do four years ago. The casting feature to play music on all speakers almost never works smoothly anymore. Adding items to my shopping list is hit or miss. Timers and alarms often get set on the wrong device. Even simple questions, like translating a word, sometimes return completely incorrect answers.

At this point I sometimes avoid asking it to play music because I know it will be a hassle, so I just pull out my phone instead. The only thing that still works fairly reliably is turning on the lights and the AC.

Does anyone know what happened to these things? Any suggestions on what I can try? It has been a few years since I did a hard reset. Would that help at all? Is there a way to check if they are missing updates?
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Google Nest Speaker are Useless in 2026