Familiar face detection is broken on Walmart Onn cameras — but there's a fix on the way

For shoppers looking to get the most out of their smart home dollar, Walmart’s Onn brand offers a nice amount to like. Besides just being available at much lower prices than Google’s own gear, it also enjoys solid compatibility with Google’s ecosystem. Last year, we got our first Onn cameras, and this summer the lineup just expanded with a couple new models — all advertising full support for Google Home with Gemini built in. But as it turns out, some of these cameras have not been playing nice with Gemini.

Getting the most out of your smart cameras with Gemini and Google Home sadly requires an ongoing paid subscription. Google Home Premium offers two tiers at the moment: There’s Advanced for $20 a month with 24/7 video history and all the bells and whistles, as well as a $10 Standard plan. But even the Standard plan includes a few video perks, like support for familiar face detection, helping you spot people you know, and get warnings about those you don’t. Over on Reddit’s Google Home sub, though, one Onn camera owner points out that even with a Standard plan, familiar face detection isn’t working.

That original post went up late last week, but today Google finally popped up in the conversation with some news to share:

Thanks for raising this to our attention. The team identified the root cause in the device firmware which is why the feature is temporarily disabled. The fix is being validated and will be in the next firmware update in the coming weeks.

The fact that owners still have to wait some number of weeks to get access to a premium feature they’re paying for today certainly isn’t great, but it’s still good to know that a fix is nonetheless on the way.

We’ll be keeping an eye out for word of that update arriving, and hopefully will be able to give any interested Onn owners a heads-up when it finally lands.