New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…
Original story (published on April 12, 2021) follows:
If you listen to radio on your smartphone, you probably use the TuneIn app to do so. TuneIn works on just about every platform including on Google Home, Google Home Mini, Home Max, JBL Link, and more.
For the most part, the service works fine although it does go down or stops working at times for all users, which is common for such applications so there’s nothing to worry about.
But now it seems that some Google Home users are reporting that TuneIn has stopped working on their devices recently.
Here are some reports for reference:
According to some Google Home users, the assistant says “ok, playing radio,” when asked to play a radio station, however, there’s no sound. Others claim that that they get a message saying “this stream is not compatible with this player.”
The problem has been around for a few years now but Google has not been able to or is unwilling to fix it since the problem was acknowledged towards the tail-end of last year.
A ‘Community specialist’ on the company’s community forums claimed that Google is aware and looking into the issue at hand, however, there has been no official response after that.
While users await an official fix for the seemingly unfixable problem, there’s a workaround shared by a user that you can try out for yourself too.
Of course, the workaround is nowhere near as convenient as the real deal but it’s worth a shot for the time being. Since the problem has been around for a couple of years, it’s unclear if and when Google will fix it.
That works for me, but what is the point to use Google Home if is not working. (Source)
As usual, we’ll keep track of the situation and will post an update once there are any new developments regarding TuneIn not working on Google Home devices.
Update 1 (June 04)
Even after months, the issue continues to persist and trouble users. And all they can do is wait for the fix to arrive. In case, any other development catches our sight, we’ll share.
Update 2 (June 10)
While Google is looking into the matter, here’s what they’re suggesting the affected users – complaining about being taken to YouTube instead of playing the request on TuneIn – to do (translated):
Update 3 (June 15)
The support has shared yet another workaround:
They further add:
Update 4 (September 17)
Google has finally acknowledged the issue where Google Home won’t play radio.
Update 5 (September 22, 2021)
According to a recent user report from Twitter, Google might have fixed the issue where Google Home was not playing any radio stations from TuneIn.
Update 6 (May 27, 2022)
06:35 pm (IST): Users are again reporting (1, 2, 3) an issue where some TuneIn stations are not working on Google Home.
Fortunately, Google support on Twitter has acknowledged this issue and said that they are working on a fix.
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