Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
I don't know about you, but Google Assistant is an essential Android Auto feature for me, especially as it supports voice commands to interact with apps hands-free.
As such, Google Assistant must work flawlessly all the time, as otherwise, I have no other option than to switch to touch input. And as we all know already, this isn't necessarily the safest thing to do in a car, as looking at the screen while driving could cause dangerous distractions.
The experience with Google Assistant has long been a crazy rollercoaster ride full of ups and downs, as it occasionally stops working on Android Auto for the uncanniest reasons.
This time, I ended up struggling with a bug that looked impossible to fix at first glance.
Google Assistant works properly on Android Auto, with no issue whatsoever when setting up navigation, playing a song, or making a phone call. But the moment I disconnect the phone from the head unit, Google Assistant becomes unavailable on the mobile device. Oddly enough, the assistant starts working again if I connect the phone back to the head unit.
The first time I noticed this unusual behavior was approximately two weeks ago, and based on my quick research, it was all caused by a Google app update. I tried downgrading to an earlier Google app version, and everything is running as expected. The Google app is in charge of powering Google Assistant on the mobile device and in the car.
Others online reported the same problem in their cars, but their workaround is a little bit different. They claim that restarting the phone fixes the problem and allows Google Assistant to work correctly on the smartphone and on Android Auto. However, the moment the mobile device is again connected to the media receiver, Google Assistant stops working on the smartphone, and another reboot is required.
Restarting the phone after shutting down Android Auto isn't by any means a convenient workaround, so another thing that could work is force-closing the Google app on the mobile device. This method should help restore Google Assistant on the smartphone if you don't want to go back to an earlier release.
If you want to see the glass half-full, then the good news is that the glitch doesn’t seem very widespread at this point. As a result, time will tell if Google at least starts an investigation, as bugs like these come and go, depending on the number of users struggling with them.
Google app updates typically go live every few days, so installing the most recent release is a good idea if you currently experience the same problem on your smartphone. The newest build at the time of writing (and still causing this bug) is 14.26.9.
The experience with Google Assistant has long been a crazy rollercoaster ride full of ups and downs, as it occasionally stops working on Android Auto for the uncanniest reasons.
This time, I ended up struggling with a bug that looked impossible to fix at first glance.
Google Assistant works properly on Android Auto, with no issue whatsoever when setting up navigation, playing a song, or making a phone call. But the moment I disconnect the phone from the head unit, Google Assistant becomes unavailable on the mobile device. Oddly enough, the assistant starts working again if I connect the phone back to the head unit.
The first time I noticed this unusual behavior was approximately two weeks ago, and based on my quick research, it was all caused by a Google app update. I tried downgrading to an earlier Google app version, and everything is running as expected. The Google app is in charge of powering Google Assistant on the mobile device and in the car.
Others online reported the same problem in their cars, but their workaround is a little bit different. They claim that restarting the phone fixes the problem and allows Google Assistant to work correctly on the smartphone and on Android Auto. However, the moment the mobile device is again connected to the media receiver, Google Assistant stops working on the smartphone, and another reboot is required.
Restarting the phone after shutting down Android Auto isn't by any means a convenient workaround, so another thing that could work is force-closing the Google app on the mobile device. This method should help restore Google Assistant on the smartphone if you don't want to go back to an earlier release.
If you want to see the glass half-full, then the good news is that the glitch doesn’t seem very widespread at this point. As a result, time will tell if Google at least starts an investigation, as bugs like these come and go, depending on the number of users struggling with them.
Google app updates typically go live every few days, so installing the most recent release is a good idea if you currently experience the same problem on your smartphone. The newest build at the time of writing (and still causing this bug) is 14.26.9.
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