Photo: autoevolution
While Waze is generally a must-have app, especially for drivers who always want to be in the know about what’s happening on the road head, it sometimes turns into one huge mess that does more harm than good.
And CarPlay users trying to run Waze these days probably know precisely what this means, as the Google-owned app is now wreaking audio havoc in many cars out there.
More specifically, a bug that originally showed up back in 2020 returned earlier this month to haunt CarPlay users once again. And just like before, it's making it impossible to adjust the audio volume in their cars.
This is because Waze simply takes over the audio on CarPlay, so when using the volume buttons (those on the steering wheel or on the head unit), the only thing you’re controlling is the voice navigation..
Even when Waze isn’t in focus, that is, and this makes everything super-frustrating, especially when talking on the phone or listening to music.
The struggle was introduced by Waze version 4.78, which shipped on October 6, but following widespread reports, the Google-owned company rapidly became aware of the problem. As a result, it released an emergency update only 7 days later to address the whole thing. Waze version 4.78.2 should therefore bring things back to normal, only that… well, it doesn’t.
Users who have installed this latest version, myself included, have noticed that the problem persists, though the bug now goes away simply when switching to another app and then back to Waze.
Obviously, this isn’t necessarily the most convenient workaround, but on the other hand, it's much faster than others. And most people switch apps on CarPlay anyway, especially if they run Waze in the dashboard view. Unless you want to switch to Google Maps, which doesn’t seem to cause this audio mess on CarPlay.
At this point, it’s not known when Waze could come up with another fix. But until this happens, just don’t be too surprised if you suddenly adjust the voice navigation volume and not your phone call audio. It’s just Waze being Waze.
More specifically, a bug that originally showed up back in 2020 returned earlier this month to haunt CarPlay users once again. And just like before, it's making it impossible to adjust the audio volume in their cars.
This is because Waze simply takes over the audio on CarPlay, so when using the volume buttons (those on the steering wheel or on the head unit), the only thing you’re controlling is the voice navigation..
Even when Waze isn’t in focus, that is, and this makes everything super-frustrating, especially when talking on the phone or listening to music.
The struggle was introduced by Waze version 4.78, which shipped on October 6, but following widespread reports, the Google-owned company rapidly became aware of the problem. As a result, it released an emergency update only 7 days later to address the whole thing. Waze version 4.78.2 should therefore bring things back to normal, only that… well, it doesn’t.
Users who have installed this latest version, myself included, have noticed that the problem persists, though the bug now goes away simply when switching to another app and then back to Waze.
Obviously, this isn’t necessarily the most convenient workaround, but on the other hand, it's much faster than others. And most people switch apps on CarPlay anyway, especially if they run Waze in the dashboard view. Unless you want to switch to Google Maps, which doesn’t seem to cause this audio mess on CarPlay.
At this point, it’s not known when Waze could come up with another fix. But until this happens, just don’t be too surprised if you suddenly adjust the voice navigation volume and not your phone call audio. It’s just Waze being Waze.
Google News