I’m having trouble controlling music playback through Google Assistant on my Android Nougat devices. The voice commands like “pause”, “stop”, and “next” don’t work anymore, but they still function perfectly on my Android 9 phone.
I tested this on multiple devices running Android 7:
Nexus 9 with stock Android 7.1.1
Nexus 9 with LineageOS 14.1
Odroid XU4 with LineageOS 14.1
The weird thing is that I can start music playback just fine using voice commands, but controlling it afterwards is impossible.
When I say “Ok Google, pause” or “Ok Google, stop”, the Assistant responds with “I can’t help with that”. If I try “Ok Google, stop Spotify”, it says it needs to know “which device to use” even when I specify “on this device” or “on my tablet”.
I already tried updating Google apps and Play Services, clearing app cache, doing factory resets, and even reflashing stock firmware. Spotify is set as my default music service in Google settings.
Has anyone experienced similar issues with voice music controls on Android 7? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
same exact prob w/ my nexus 6p on 7.0! google killed music controls for android 7 devices back in 2022. I switched to voice access instead of assistant for playback - worked perfctly.
check your sound settings - make sure the assistant can actually control media volume. my moto z play had this weird bug where the assistant couldn’t touch media controls even tho everything looked fine. i had to turn off ‘use voice for media’ and flip it back on to fix it.
Had this same annoying issue on my Pixel C with Android 7.1.2. Spent weeks trying to fix it before realizing it wasn’t Google apps - it’s how the media sessions work. Fixed it by switching to PowerAmp, which actually talks to Google Assistant properly. Now voice controls work perfectly again. Newer Spotify versions just don’t play nice with Assistant on Android 7, even though voice playback still works. Google changed how media sessions work after Nougat, and Spotify apparently doesn’t care about backward compatibility. Try a different music app first - way easier than hunting down old APKs.
sounds like a common problem. since last yr’s update, music controls via google assistant have been spotty on older androids. maybe give spotify connect a shot? it’s way more reliable than voice commands on nougat.
Had the same annoying issue on my old Nexus 7 with Android 7.1. Here’s what actually fixed it - don’t just downgrade the Google app, you need to install an older Google Play Services instead. The problem runs deeper than the assistant interface.
I went with version 21.24.13 from late 2021 and turned off auto-updates for Play Services in the Play Store. Fair warning though - some newer apps might whine about outdated Play Services, but it’s been rock solid for basic music control.
The hardest part is finding the right APK for your device architecture, but once you nail that, voice commands work like they used to.