Google Assistant

Google Assistant speakers, smart displays just lost most read-along Disney books

Ben Schoon | Feb 25 2021 - 11:21 am PT

There are a lot of useful voice-controlled apps and games on Google Assistant, including several that are useful for parents with young children. For the past few years, Google has supported read-along books on Google Assistant devices, but now most of them are gone, with Disney stories from Little Golden Books removed.

Spotted by Android Police, Google recently updated one of its support pages to note that many of its read-along Little Golden books for Google Assistant are no longer available. The company only lists the books that are available, which include:

Aladdin
Lion King
Frozen
Frozen 2

What’s been removed? Three times what’s actually available. Twelve books have been removed, with one book no longer on Google’s list but still active. All 17 books are still listed on Disney’s website as compatible, though. The list of titles before February 23 included The Three Little Pigs, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Coco, Jack Jack Attack, Moana, Toy Story 3, Peter Pan, Mulan, Mickey Mouse and his Spaceship, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Mickey Mouse Goes Christmas Shopping, and Ara the Star Engineer. That last one is still available when requested on Google Assistant speakers and smart displays.

Previously, you could access all 17 of these books through Assistant using commands such as “Hey Google, let’s read along with Disney.” Then, you could pick a book and start reading, but now most of those books are gone.

https://youtu.be/NH7HI2BW6aE

At this point, it’s unclear why these titles have been removed. Google, Disney, and Little Golden have shuffled this library in the past, but this time around, most titles have been removed entirely. It’s possible it’s just a case of a licensing issue, but we’ll have to wait and see on that.