Photo: Google
One of the most mysterious glitches on Android Auto, and which looks like it’s becoming more and more widespread, is affecting the phone’s keyboard.
Users who disconnect mobile devices from the head units in their cars discovered that after shutting down Android Auto, the phone keyboards no longer work.
As weird as that may sound, this is exactly what’s happening on some devices, as for some reason, the keyboard no longer shows up regardless of the app that invokes it.
Reported a few months ago, this unexpected behavior has since become more widespread, with a discussion thread here on Google’s forums already having close to 130 upvotes and over 60 comments.
The problem seems to affect pretty much any keyboard app out there, so it’s not just the native software. Samsung’s keyboard, Microsoft SwiftKey, and any other alternative, all end up being completely frozen after Android Auto shuts down on the mobile device.
While Google is still trying to collect more data on the bug and then start the work on a fix, someone on Google’s forums suggests an easy fix that seems to restore the keyboard on the affected devices.
At this point, the only way to get the keyboard app up and running is to reboot the phone completely.
But one user explains that it’s enough to just force-close the Google app, as for some reason, it’s the one to blame for the keyboard glitch. The Google app is also responsible for powering Google Assistant, so maybe the issue is linked with the use of voice commands on Android Auto.
For the time being, however, this is pretty much the only way to deal with the problem in a more convenient manner. Of course, crashing the Google app isn’t something everybody would be willing to do every time they step out of their cars, but it’s currently the only fix until the search giant comes up with a full fix.
As weird as that may sound, this is exactly what’s happening on some devices, as for some reason, the keyboard no longer shows up regardless of the app that invokes it.
Reported a few months ago, this unexpected behavior has since become more widespread, with a discussion thread here on Google’s forums already having close to 130 upvotes and over 60 comments.
The problem seems to affect pretty much any keyboard app out there, so it’s not just the native software. Samsung’s keyboard, Microsoft SwiftKey, and any other alternative, all end up being completely frozen after Android Auto shuts down on the mobile device.
While Google is still trying to collect more data on the bug and then start the work on a fix, someone on Google’s forums suggests an easy fix that seems to restore the keyboard on the affected devices.
At this point, the only way to get the keyboard app up and running is to reboot the phone completely.
But one user explains that it’s enough to just force-close the Google app, as for some reason, it’s the one to blame for the keyboard glitch. The Google app is also responsible for powering Google Assistant, so maybe the issue is linked with the use of voice commands on Android Auto.
For the time being, however, this is pretty much the only way to deal with the problem in a more convenient manner. Of course, crashing the Google app isn’t something everybody would be willing to do every time they step out of their cars, but it’s currently the only fix until the search giant comes up with a full fix.
Google News