Photo: Google
One of the reasons so many people use Android Auto these days is because it offers deep integration of essential features needed behind the wheel.
The voice command support, for example, has become a must-have capability for many modern drivers out there, pretty much because it makes it possible to interact with the apps running on Android Auto without the need for looking at the screen.
At the end of the day, this is a win-win for everybody, as it essentially reduces the distraction behind the wheel.
But as many of us learned the hard way, the way voice commands work on Android Auto isn’t always the most flawless. And in some cases, it could actually break down completely without users changing anything on their side.
This time, the whole thing seems to be caused by an update that shipped earlier this week. However, there’s a chance this mysterious update was aimed at the Google app, so the culprit is Google Assistant directly, not Android Auto.
Users here on Google’s forums indicate that making calls with a voice command ends up sending the audio to the phone’s speaker. By default, when Android Auto is running on the screen in the cabin, the phone calls should be routed to the stereo system in the car.
However, Google Assistant seems to exhibit some sort of glitch that was introduced in the latest version, as the whole thing happens only when Android Auto is running. Users claim that picking up incoming calls works just as expected, and so does making a phone call manually from the screen without using voice commands.
The same behavior has been confirmed by other users, all of them revealing the error showed up in the last few days, presumably after a recent update.
Google is yet to acknowledge the problem, but if you’re certain the Google app is the one to blame, just downgrade to a previous version and see if the bug is gone.
At the end of the day, this is a win-win for everybody, as it essentially reduces the distraction behind the wheel.
But as many of us learned the hard way, the way voice commands work on Android Auto isn’t always the most flawless. And in some cases, it could actually break down completely without users changing anything on their side.
This time, the whole thing seems to be caused by an update that shipped earlier this week. However, there’s a chance this mysterious update was aimed at the Google app, so the culprit is Google Assistant directly, not Android Auto.
Users here on Google’s forums indicate that making calls with a voice command ends up sending the audio to the phone’s speaker. By default, when Android Auto is running on the screen in the cabin, the phone calls should be routed to the stereo system in the car.
However, Google Assistant seems to exhibit some sort of glitch that was introduced in the latest version, as the whole thing happens only when Android Auto is running. Users claim that picking up incoming calls works just as expected, and so does making a phone call manually from the screen without using voice commands.
The same behavior has been confirmed by other users, all of them revealing the error showed up in the last few days, presumably after a recent update.
Google is yet to acknowledge the problem, but if you’re certain the Google app is the one to blame, just downgrade to a previous version and see if the bug is gone.
Google News