Same thing happened to Nest. The cameras and thermostats were great when they were a private company then sh*t the bed when Google took them over.
Google stopped support of their app almost immediately in support of ‘Google Home’ which was to control the thermostat and Camera - which is terrible and requires you to constantly log into it with your email and password if you want to access anything.
Google Home is the biggest piece of shit I’ve ever had the displeasure to use.
It used to work really well, and now it’s trash. I don’t know how they could fuck something up so badly.
Home Assistant works well on a cheap(-ish) Raspberry Pi. They’re even working to get voice fully capable.
It can be fully local and is FOSS, for those for whom that matters.
If you’re using HA then there is an open source alternative to Alexa! https://heywillow.io/components/willow-inference-server/
I don’t think I’ve ever had to log into the Google Home app, it just uses the accounts on my phone. Or is this some sort of situation where, “I’m too Android to understand this problem?”
Having your Google Accounts linked to your phone is the same as being logged into them at all times. I believe the person you’re replying to might not use Google Account integration.
