One of my son’s favorite features of the Nest Hub during bedtime was the ability to say “Hey Google, let’s read along with Disney”. Upon doing so, he’s been able to have Google read with him and play sound effects to the classic Disney stories that we’ve purchased and keep in his Google Play Books library. Unfortunately, the company has now broken the hearts of millions by making several of these unavailable. What, were you surprised?
Originally allowing 17 titles to be a part of the Read Along library, Google or Disney (or both) have decided that they would only allow five of these to remain for reasons unbeknownst to well, anyone. They simply say that they’re no longer supporting this feature “for some titles”.
You can now only access Aladdin, The Lion King, Ara the Star Engineer, Frozen, and Frozen 2 while the following titles have had support completely removed:
- The Three Little Pigs
- Alice in Wonderland
- Cinderella
- Coco
- Jack Jack Attack (one of the best ones!)
- Mickey Mouse and his Spaceship
- Moana
- Toy Story 3
- Peter Pan
- Mulan
- Mickey’s Christmas Carol
- Mickey Mouse Goes Christmas Shopping
I’m willing to bet that Google didn’t renew its licensing with Disney for these titles, but I guess we’ll never know! The support page gives no specific reason for their removal, and Google isn’t really the type of company to be transparent about these sorts of things. With all of its efforts surrounding family features across its ecosystem, this sure is a weird move that’s left my son pretty disappointed. I guess we’ll just go back to Dr. Seuss for now!
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