What it’s essential know
- Google says that Assistant Driving Mode is not going wherever, however a serious change is coming.
- Assistant Driving Mode now sports activities a banner that claims its important view, a grid of touch-friendly apps, goes away this month.
- Whereas the title stays, Assistant Driving Mode is all however useless. The transfer comes after Google beforehand canned Android Auto for Cellphone Screens and Assistant Driving Mode Dashboard.
Android Auto is an effective way to regulate music, maps, and extra whereas driving — when you’ve got a automotive that helps it. For everybody else, Assistant Driving Mode is a neat method to make the most of touch-friendly controls in your Android cellphone whereas driving. However someday this month, opposite to what Google says, Assistant Driving Mode is successfully dying, however not utterly.
In January, Google introduced that it might be eradicating 17 “underutilized” options in Google Assistant. One among them gave the impression to be Assistant Driving Mode: “Utilizing app launcher in Google Assistant driving mode on Google Maps to learn and ship messages, make calls, and management media,” the corporate stated. “You may nonetheless use voice management on Google Maps the identical manner.”
For the reason that app launcher is taken into account to be one of many greatest Assistant Driving Mode options, many assumed the complete expertise was being eliminated altogether. The suspicions have been considerably confirmed this week when Android Police observed a banner within the app launcher on Assistant Driving Mode. The banner instructed customers to count on the view to be eliminated someday this month.
Nonetheless, Google instructed 9to5Google that it is not really eradicating Assistant Driving Mode when the February 7 change takes impact. The black bar on the backside of Assistant Driving Mode will stay, and customers can nonetheless use their voice to regulate Assistant.
Regardless of the corporate’s official feedback, it is clear that Assistant Driving Mode — as customers knew it — is coming to an finish. Arguably, the mode’s finest performance was the app launcher, which featured giant icons that have been straightforward to the touch whereas driving. That is the characteristic that’s going away, and the brand new model of Assistant Driving Mode coming this month will comprise a fraction of the unique performance.
Google has repeatedly eliminated or altered driving mode options over the previous few years, particularly because it focuses on Android Auto and Android Automotive. The unique iteration, known as Android Auto for Cellphone Screens, was killed in 2021. The Assistant Driving Mode Dashboard was axed in 2022.
So, by the top of this month, all that will likely be left of Assistant Driving Mode is the media playback bar and the voice management button. In case you have a automotive that helps Android Auto, you may not even discover the change. Nonetheless, drivers with older vehicles may be annoyed to search out that the easiest way to launch apps whereas driving is disappearing.
