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Google users complain its Assistant has changed its white noise and is disturbing their children’s sleep

 (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Google has changed its white noise, users have complained – and it has left children unable to sleep and adults confused.

The Google Assistant inside products like its small Home speakers offers a range of different ambient sounds, aimed at relaxing, sleeping or other users. One of those is white noise, which users can ask to play if they want help with concentrating or drifting off.

But users say that the sound itself appears to have changed, and it is leaving them the opposite of relaxed.

“Been using the white noise ambient sound to help sleep and noticed last night the sound had been changed,” a post on the Google forum reads. The user complains that the sound is quieter but also shorter, meaning that it drops off within 30 minutes and then starts again, leaving silence in between.

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That thread, first reported by blog 9to5Google, has now received almost 180 replies.

Many of them say they had been left confused by the change of sound, with users reporting they were “feeling crazy” because they were unable to identify what had changed. “Swore either my mind or the speaker was going!” one said.

Others said the changes had caused problem for them or their children sleeping.

“My toddler has noticed the sound change and now wakes during the night,” one wrote. “I play it every night for my toddler and she’s really upset about this change and obviously doesn’t understand it,” said another.

As well as the disruptive break in the sound, users said the muffled sound meant they were forced to turn the volume up to have it at a satisfactory level. That however means that all the system’s other sounds are louder too.

Google does offer other ambient sounds in the meantime, which can be asked for directly by name or randomly conjured by asking it to “play ambient noise”. Options include rain sounds and forest sounds, and they can all be found on Google’s support website.