True. They are ONLY good when they have competition. The sense of complacency that creeps in is so obvious as a customer.
To this day, the Google Home (or is it called Nest now?) speaker is the only physical product i've ever owned where it lost features over time. I used to be able to play the audio of a Youtube video (like a podcast) through it, but then Google decided that it was very very important that I only be able to play a Youtube video through a device with a screen, because it is imperative that I see a still image when I play a longform history podcast.
Obviously, this is a silly and highly specific example, but it is emblematic of how they neglect or enshittify massive swathes of their products as soon as the executive team loses interest and puts their A team on some shiny new object.
The experience on Sonos is terrible. There are countless examples of people sinking 1000s of dollars into Sonos ecosystem, and the new app update has rendered them useless.
I'm experiencing the same problem with my Google Home ecosystem. One day I can turn off the living room lights with the simple phrase "Turn off Living Room Lights," and then randomly for two straight days it doesn't understand my command
Preach it my friend. For years on the Google Home Hub (or Nest Hub or whatever) I could tell it to "favorite my photo" of what is on the screen. This allowed me to incrementally build a great list of my favorite photos on Google Photos and added a ton of value to my life. At some point that broke, and now it just says, "Sorry, I can't do that yet". Infuriating
To this day, the Google Home (or is it called Nest now?) speaker is the only physical product i've ever owned where it lost features over time. I used to be able to play the audio of a Youtube video (like a podcast) through it, but then Google decided that it was very very important that I only be able to play a Youtube video through a device with a screen, because it is imperative that I see a still image when I play a longform history podcast.
Obviously, this is a silly and highly specific example, but it is emblematic of how they neglect or enshittify massive swathes of their products as soon as the executive team loses interest and puts their A team on some shiny new object.