A new Google Home Mini update will bring touch controls to the side of the unit after Google had to disable the touch controls for music playback that used to be enabled on the top of the speaker. Initially Google disabled the top-facing touch control functions because the speaker was always listening to every word being spoken by owners, an issue caused by the speaker thinking the top of it was being pressed which would have initialized the speaker to listen for something, much like touching the mic button in the Google app.
While Google isn’t bringing back the top-facing touch function, it is going to be able to bring back the function, it will just be on the sides of the speakers with this update that is being sent out so users. According to the details the update is first going to be pushed out to users which are enrolled in the software preview, and once the update is sent out to all or most of the users who are in the software preview then Google will start to push the update out to all other users. Once the update is complete the side touch controls which are generally used for volume will be able to initiate pause and play functionality for songs or other things after the user long presses the controls, whereas a single quick tap will still handle the volume adjustment as before.
Since this will be hitting people with speakers that are part of the preview program first, there’s no telling how long it will be before anyone outside of the program gets the update. It is possible though that since the update introduces a fix that re-renables a function that Google intended the Google Home Mini to have it won’t end up being too long of a wait. If you have a Google Home Mini and you’re not part of the preview program, you could always try enrolling in it to see if the update ends up coming through faster, and that may not be such a bad idea if you wanted the ability to use the touch controls for pausing playback.