Photo: Google
One of the best features of Google Maps is the Google Assistant integration, as users can therefore control the app without having to rely on touch input.
For someone who needs to keep their eyes on the road, this is obviously critical, as using voice commands reduces the distraction in a substantial manner.
Unfortunately for some Android users out there, interacting with Google Maps hands-free isn’t always as straightforward as it’s supposed to be, all because of issues impacting the voice command support.
Not much is known at this point about the cause of the error, but users here on Google’s forums claim a recent update is the one to blame for the whole thing.
More specifically, while the original voice command to navigate to a specific destination is originally detected properly, the voice input is then completely broken. Some say the only way to restore it is to just minimize Google Maps, and this indeed seems to indicate the app is the culprit.
Someone who participates in the discussion thread says that creating a new profile in the device at the root level is what brought things back to normal, though it goes without saying this isn’t a convenient workaround for everybody.
On the other hand, others have tried all kinds of extreme workarounds, including even full resets of their mobile devices. All to no avail, that is, as the voice commands in Google Maps are still broken.
At this point, this only seems to happen on Android, and at some level, this makes sense. However, Google Maps on iOS hasn’t received an update in approximately a month, so a new version that landed on Android is possibly the one that’s causing the whole mess.
For now, no other fix is available, so it remains to be seen if the next Google Maps update to ship to Android devices will correct this behavior..
Unfortunately for some Android users out there, interacting with Google Maps hands-free isn’t always as straightforward as it’s supposed to be, all because of issues impacting the voice command support.
Not much is known at this point about the cause of the error, but users here on Google’s forums claim a recent update is the one to blame for the whole thing.
More specifically, while the original voice command to navigate to a specific destination is originally detected properly, the voice input is then completely broken. Some say the only way to restore it is to just minimize Google Maps, and this indeed seems to indicate the app is the culprit.
Someone who participates in the discussion thread says that creating a new profile in the device at the root level is what brought things back to normal, though it goes without saying this isn’t a convenient workaround for everybody.
On the other hand, others have tried all kinds of extreme workarounds, including even full resets of their mobile devices. All to no avail, that is, as the voice commands in Google Maps are still broken.
At this point, this only seems to happen on Android, and at some level, this makes sense. However, Google Maps on iOS hasn’t received an update in approximately a month, so a new version that landed on Android is possibly the one that’s causing the whole mess.
For now, no other fix is available, so it remains to be seen if the next Google Maps update to ship to Android devices will correct this behavior..
Google News