Android: Pandora Voice Search Does Not Respond to Commands

[MusicFan78989]

All of a sudden, voice search has stopped working. It will respond to, "Hey, Pandora" and open the search screen. When I speak, "Play...", the microphone icon pulses to the rhythm of my words, showing that it hears them. But nothing else happens. Then it usually returns back to the homepage. Yesterday, it crashed and restarted instead.

This is the same non-response, whether I am using wifi or cellular. 

I have double checked that the app has permission to use my mic and the voice search is on (again, this started on its own, without having made any changes). I tried clearing all the app's data, updating the app, completely uninstalling and reinstalling, and double-checking it can run in the background without optimizing the battery. I just cleared out more memory on my phone too.

Still no change. Texting and emailing support just sends me back the same response on how to turn on Voice Search. It's on. I never turned it off. Now what?

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity *

[Awwcool22]

It seems Pandora doesn't care. I've already cancelled after being a premium
subscriber for over 10yrs.

[ballroompics]

@MusicFan78989 

I have added my voice to the chorus and created a ticket. I pointed back to this conversation in the ticket.  S21 Ultra, Android 14. Cleared cache (both app cache and cache partition) and uninstalled/reinstalled.

It's worth noting that the behavior is the same whether you say "Hey Pandora" or instead touch the microphone button (it goes to listening for your command mode but nothing happens).

I suspect that "hey pandora" is processed locally in the phone and that's why that works to activate the listening but that the actual directive commands (play Lana Del Ray, etc) are uploaded to their service for voice processing. This leads me to believe the problem is either in the transmission of the command to pandora servers or the commands are getting transmitted successfully but the software on the pandora servers is failing. 

It could be something as simple as a blocked port on their firewall - but that should have been found and remediated very quickly.

Pandora the company should note that this is a bit of a safety issue as many of us use voice commands while driving in preference to using the touchscreen.

[ballroompics]

@AdamPandora 

Would it be fair to get a status back from the company posted publicly here? 

With at least 5 months of troubleshooting efforts under their belt,  Pandora must know the problem source - even if a solution is not yet available. 

When we on the customer side of things just have silence for months, it undermines confidence. 

A status update would be very welcome. Something more than a generic "our engineers are working on the problem".

Thank you.

[AlyssaPandora]

Pandora Update (07.02.24): Hi friends 👋

Thank you for your valuable feedback and for taking the time to report this issue. We understand how frustrating this must be. While there are no updates to provide right now, rest assured that our moderation team has carefully compiled all the feedback we have received around this issue and have shared it with the appropriate engineering team for investigation.

Due to the nature of this issue and the effort across teams to investigate, we’re unable to provide an estimated timeline for a fix. We apologize for the inconvenience around these functions and features.  Thank you for appreciate your continued patience during this process. 🎧

[Stubby123]

Make my voice command work on pandora 

[Tscarafiotti]

LoL, yeah they will get right on that...

Snap snap

[DM6977]

I have the same issue it responds to hey Pandora and then the microphone icon shows up and pulses to my voice but it does not bring up what I ask it to play I have two different phones that are Android phones but it's the same thing on each phone it's a problem Pandora needs to be made aware of and fix. Forgive people a discount you can't keep charging people for a service when all the features do not work6th

[chz5150]

I think this is all very unfortunate since Pandora pretty much pioneered this idea.

[Nicki9252]

Due to the ongoing nature of this issue I have allowed my premium subscription to lapse and am now shopping with competitors. I'll be unable to return to Pandora until after this issue has been clearly and wholly resolved. I also am not sure that I have an interest in returning due to Pandora making the decision to raise cost of subscription despite having a fatal flaw with no timeline for resolution. I will continue to recommend this as the solution to other Pandora subscribers, unfortunately there is no alternative more advantageous or appealing. 

[Awwcool22]

Yep, after 20+ yrs of being a Pandora subscriber I let it lapse also. I have since started using Prime Music.

I would doubt you can export to another app. I haven't tried. But I do know prime doesn't have the same channels under the same name. There are some but most everything is there, it's just under a different name. Example: "Back roads Radio" is "Country Heat" under Prime. The one thing is VOICE SEARCH WORKS!?

mod edit: merged comments

[jfixoye]

I'd like to ask you how you got all your Pandora stations and albums you've
saved and just everything over to prime? Or how do you get all your Pandora
stuff over to any other music streaming service? That's what's keeping me
from leaving Pandora.

[Nicki9252]

If I can't access my playlists/stations/liked songs without upgrading then
I will do a trail of premium once more just to get the info, and probably
make an excel type document to keep track of it all. I'll probably watch a
YouTube if how to export that info as seamlessly as possible.

[calebadger]

In august now, has there been a fix found for this yet? 

[Awwcool22]

Nope, Pandora doesn't care. All the while raising rates.

[Tscarafiotti]

Its been since February on this post, and almost  year now for me. August shouldn't be a surprise. 

Im pretty sure this all ties into the apple / app thing thats currently in the courts. The allegations are apple has purposely bugged apps to only work 100% on apple phones.

Id be curious to see how many on just this thread have Iphones? My bet is none. 

[fwelton]

Ditto, only carrier is ATT.  Android 14

[Awwcool22]

I'm on Verizon, same here.

[SirMatthewKBE]

I have an android.  I can't get the blasted voice app to do anything at all.  It looks like it's listening but just disappears.  I can Hey Google and ask her (I have the British condescending woman's voice, lol) and she will make Pandora do something but it often ends up confusing Pandora.  Worse than the hey pandora thing, the app REFUSES to close.  I have to go to apps and FORCE it to stop! I rebooted my phone recently and PANDORA opened by itself! I'm too set in my ways to use a different app, it's taken me so long to get my playlists right, but I don't know how much longer I can stand it.  It's quite a joke that they increase prices and fail to do ANYTHING.  You'd think they would at least address this issue, tell us they are aware of it, publicly.  Probably not good for their pr, but I don't care.  

[ballroompics]

Additional data. Pandora voice commands do not work for me on cellular or wi-fi connections in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey ... neither on wi-fi nor on cellular. I am in these states regularly and so have tested this across dozens of wi-fi locations and likely hundreds of different cell towers over the last 8 months.

I'm traveling now. In Michigan, Pandora voice commands DO WORK for me on the wifi of the home I'm staying at. Discovered this, this morning. In a little bit, I'll repeat the test at a coffee shop.

If I disable my phone's wi-fi (here in Michigan), Pandora voice commands once again become inoperable.

TL;DR - Pandora voice commands work for me in Michigan on at least one WI-FI. They never work for me in New York, Connecticut, or New Jersey.

August 19, 2024

[Natorious]

I have been having this problem for about a year now. pandora responds to 'Hey Pandora' but nothing after that. is there a ix yeat?