[Updated] Google Assistant slow speech speed issue escalated for investigation, but you can try these workarounds for now

This story is being continuously updated, and new updates are being added at the bottom.

Original story (published on March 23, 2021) follows:

Google recently released a new Assistant-powered device. Coming in as the successor to the 2018 Nest Hub, the 2nd-gen model brings with it more functionality than its predecessor.

Unlike the original model whose purpose was to serve as a digital photo frame, the latest Nest Hub takes things to the next level by including sleep tracking abilities.

This shows how better and smarter Assistant-powered smart home devices are becoming with each iteration. But it isn’t to say the digital voice assistant is perfect and blemish-free.

Over the past couple of weeks, there have been a slew of reports doing rounds in the Google Assistant support forums from users experiencing a bizarre issue with the voice assistant.

Apparently, out of nowhere, the Google Assistant speech speed has become too slow. This happens even without touching any setting, which makes it even more strange.

I have the same problem with the voice slowing down severely. Started with a fast voice, and has continued to get slower and slower each day. Nothing found yet to fix the issue.
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Wow I’m so relieved to see this isn’t just me! I’ve search all my setting thinking I accidentally changed something with my cheek when talking on the phone. Now I see it’s Google itself, not me. GOOGLE PLEASE FIX THIS it is so slow and slurred that I finish reading an entire paragraph b4 she finishes a single sentence. Smdh. My friend (a loyal Iphone user) got in my car, heard it and said I need to “fire my google assistant & send her to rehab” 😹😹 It’s SAD, Very SAD!
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Going by reports, it seems the issue affects Android users of the digital assistant. There’s no specific vendor, which leads back to the Assistant as the main culprit.

And true to this, Google is already looking into the slow speech speed issue on Assistant devices, so we can expect a solution to be made available sooner than later.

However, it’s been over a week since the matter got escalated to Google, but still no official solution. If you are still facing slow speech speed issue on your Google Assistant, we have some temporary fixes.

Tried and tested by some of those affected, the first thing you need to try is resetting the speech settings via the Text-to-speech option found under the Accessibility menu.

If this workaround doesn’t fix the problem, you may also try the following:

i figured it out on my phone anyway, it seems the pitch and speed is backwards, i kept trying to up the speed and the ” sample” was very fast, but the actual speech output got worse, so i tried the opposite….i made it to the slowest speed, like all the way to the left on speed and pitch, the sample was slow but the actual output was normal…hope this works for you….who the hell knows why it reversed like this but it did.
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Yeah, we too are equally appalled by this workaround, but it seems to be doing the trick for several affected users, so be sure to give it a go as you wait for the official fix.

Speaking of, we will be keeping an eye on this matter and let you know when Google gets back with an acknowledgement or fix, so stay tuned to PiunikaWeb.

(IST) 05:50 pm: Another product expert has now jumped in calling this a “known issue.” Here is their exact statement:

This for sure is a known issue.
I will escalate to let folks know .
Be sure to leave feedback. You can just say “Ok Google, leave feedback” and give your request

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