Google is set to roll out an update to Google Play Services tomorrow aimed at addressing the slow WiFi issue that some users of Chromecast and Google Home have experienced. The issue cropped up a couple of weeks ago and at first, was thought to be an issue with the new Google Home Max. It turns out that Google Play Services was the culprit.
For those that haven’t encountered the problem (good!), it comes down to Android devices on your network as well as Chromecast and Home devices. Essentially what was happening is that Android devices on the same network would see the Cast enabled device and flood your network with packets. That would cause slowness or instability. It was effectively an internal DDoS attack.
Google engineers identified the problem and will be pushing out a Play Services update starting tomorrow. Like all of these type of updates, it will be phased out so you may not get the update tomorrow. In fact, it may be several days.
If you are impacted and don’t see the update tomorrow, Google is recommending that you reboot your Android phone and make sure your WiFi router is running its latest firmware.
For what it is worth, I’ve not run into this issue. I have multiple Google Home and Chromecast devices on my network as well as multiple Android devices. But my routers are Google WiFi routers which may have spared me.
