Image copyrightGoogleImage caption Google has said it is not sure how long it will take to fix the problem Google's internet-connected speakers are apologising for being somewhat less "smart" than normal.The Home devices are responding to queries by saying "there was a glitch" or "sorry, something went wrong".Users worldwide are being instructed to "try again in a few seconds", only to face a repeat of the problem.A spokeswoman for the tech giant acknowledged the setback and said that some of the firm's TV-streaming dongles had also been affected."We're aware of an issue affecting some Google Home and Chromecast users.
We're investigating the issue and working on a solution," she said.The firm has yet to be more specific about the cause of the technical problem.Social media reports indicate that there was a surge in the number of people reporting related error messages at about 09:00 BST.In several cases, users first noticed the problem because the speakers had failed to play a wake-up alarm.Some have already reported that affected kit has returned to normal, but many others say problems are continuing.The malfunction comes a day after the Home speakers began handling Spanish-language queries.Google is also in the process of rolling out Continued Conversation - a facility that keeps a Home speaker's microphone live for eight seconds after a query to permit follow-up commands, letting users avoid having to repeat a wake word.Image copyrightGoogleImage caption Google's Chromecast TV dongles have also stopped working However, it is not clear whether these updates contributed to the issue.Google is not the only tech firm to have experienced disruption.Users of the work-based chat service Slack were unable to log in to the service for much of the day.However, the San Francisco-based company has indicated that the problem has been resolved.