Samsung TV owners, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief — your voice commands are no longer being lost in translation. For the past few days, users around the world, particularly those with 2017 Samsung smart TVs, found themselves speaking English but seeing responses in Russian (or, for some, what they suspected was Finnish). The bizarre glitch turned simple tasks like setting a sleep timer or searching for YouTube videos into an unexpected language lesson. But now, the problem has been fixed.
Seemingly out of nowhere, voice commands on several Samsung TV models started misbehaving. Users who had been comfortably using the feature for years suddenly found their English instructions translated into Russian. Resetting the TV, re-syncing remotes, and digging through language settings didn’t help. Some even reached out to Samsung support, only to be met with the suggestion that they should consider buying a new TV — an answer that understandably didn’t sit well with users.
To make matters worse, affected TVs refused to update their software or even check for available updates, leaving users wondering whether their smart TVs had suddenly turned rogue. Speculation ran wild, with some suspecting a misfired update, a server-side issue, or even a hack. Whatever the cause, one thing was clear: users weren’t the problem — something had gone wrong on Samsung’s end.
After a wave of complaints flooded Samsung forums, Reddit, and other tech communities, Samsung finally took action. A forum moderator in Samsung’s European Community has now confirmed that the company has updated its servers, and voice commands are once again working as they should. Several users have also reported that their TVs are back to normal, and — best of all — there’s nothing they had to do to fix it. No resets, no firmware downloads, no desperate menu-diving — just a silent server tweak that restored order to the smart TV world.
While Samsung hasn’t publicly apologized for the inconvenience or even given an official account of what actually transpired, the incident serves as yet another reminder of how much control companies have over smart devices. A single, silent tweak on Samsung’s servers was enough to break — and then fix — voice commands for an entire range of TVs. It’s also a reminder that when something seems off with your tech, you’re probably not alone. A quick search online often reveals others facing the same issue, sometimes even before companies officially acknowledge the problem.
For now, Samsung TV owners can get back to issuing voice commands without needing a Russian phrasebook on standby. But the next time your smart device starts acting strangely, don’t be too quick to assume it’s on your end — sometimes, it’s just a matter of waiting for a fix from the mothership.