Update your phone now to get the latest major fix for Android Auto
Get your voice commands back
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
If you’re an Android Auto user, you should get theGoogleapp on yourAndroid phoneupdated to the latest version at your earliest convenience – that’s the app that assists Android Auto on car dashboards, and it means you’ll get the latest fix rolled out by Google.
As reported on theAndroid Auto Help forums(viaAutoevolution), engineers have now dealt with a rather annoying bug that interfered with in-car voice commands – even ones as innocuous as “call my wife”.
The problem, it seems, is that something was interfering with the personalized settings inside the Google app, which in turn blocked access to contact information. Ask Android Auto to call your brother, for example, and it wouldn’t know who your brother was.
How to update
“We are happy to report that the Assistant team has applied a fix,” writes one of the Android Auto team in the official support forum. “Please update your Google app to the latest version, which should solve the problem.”
You may well find the Google app has updated itself automatically. To check, open up thePlay Store, tap your profile picture (top right), and then chooseManage apps and device. SelectUpdates availableto review and install any pending updates.
It’s difficult to say exactly how widespread the problem was, but in the original troubleshooting forum thread, a total of 31 users indicated they had the same issue as the initial poster. Hopefully, all should now be well again.
Analysis: less AI, more AA
Google recently treated Android Auto users with a revamped interfaceknown as Coolwalk, but it’s been a rocky drive for them since – only last month Google dealt withyet another bugthat was affecting people with aSamsung Galaxy S22phone.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
While we’re quite impressed with all the artificial intelligence that Google has beenstuffing into its productslately, we do get the impression that the company is more interested in shiny new toys than the wealth of established apps and services that it already offers to users.
Sure, being able to have Gmailwrite boring emailsfor you seems like quite a cool hack for saving some time in the day – but we reckon that most people would be content with some solid updates and fixes for the tools they’re using day-to-day, whether that’s to do withPixel phonesordata security.
Android Auto is a case in point: an app and interface that millions of people rely on every day, that has long felt neglected. Perhaps we can be grateful that at least it hasn’t yetgone the way of Google Stadiaand numerous other products…
Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.
WhatsApp will soon help you spot misinformation – here’s how
Google Messages on Android could soon get a big photo-sharing boost
Google TV will require more RAM for future upgrades – which might leave older TVs and streaming boxes behind
