He’s not dead or on a spree, but almost. Yesterday we echoed that the driving mode of the Google Assistant had its days numbered and now Google says that it is not a big deal: will survive, but as a bottom bar without further ado.
Google continues like this dismantling piece by piece which at the time sold us as the replacement for Android Auto for phones. Starting February 7, this replacement will be a simple bottom bar that will appear in Google Maps while we are on a route.
Not dead, but almost
Google wants you to know that the Google Assistant driving mode will still be there after February 7, because what is going to disappear is the app launcher which is displayed when you press the four square button. For many, this is basically the driving mode itself, since what remains when we eliminate it is basically a bar with the microphone icon and another to open said launcher.
If the matter is confusing to you and you no longer know what is going to disappear on February 7, here is a diagram. Basically, there will be no special interface for driving mode and everything will happen in the bar that appears while you drive on Google Maps. Here it is summarized graphically:
This bar shows the icon of the accessory and includes information about multimedia playback, so we can still use it to change songs or pause the music. Come on, the ambitious driving mode of the Google Assistant that we knew in 2021 has become a bar to talk to the Assistant and control musicwithout further ado.
The latter downgrade It will arrive from February 7, when the application launcher view disappears and, if I may predict, it will almost certainly not be the last. After all, we only need to analyze the Assistant driving mode change timeline from Google to see what the trend is and what its future is likely to be:
- 2019: Google announces driving mode at Google I/O 2019
- 2020: Driving mode begins to arrive, slowly, in some regions.
- 2021: Driving mode arrives in Spain and launches its own home screen so that we don’t miss Android Auto for phones.
- 2022: Google removes first the map view from driving mode and then the entire home screen that launched a year earlier.
- 2024: Google removes the application launcher from driving mode and only the bottom bar will survive.
Via | 9to5Google
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