The Google Assistant can be very useful for some users when we drive, since it provides us with direct access to different functionalities. However, Google has decided to eliminate it forever starting this month of February, as an advertisement says when we use it.
When we start driving mode in Google Maps, the Google Assistant allows us to access some of the functions we use the most in our daily lives, avoiding having to look away from what is most important at that moment: the road we are driving on. However, in recent months we have witnessed how Google had stopped incorporating new improvements, unleashing rumors about possible changes to the app by the American company.
The most notable change, despite this, has occurred in recent days. When specialized media have detected that at the time of activate driving mode on their devices and invoke the assistant, a banner appeared saying a message in English similar to “This view will disappear in February”. Without adding more information about the possible changes that would be planned to continue offering users a similar option.
During the month of February
We found the first rumors that seemed to indicate that this Google functionality could soon disappear during the month of December 2023, when the media 9to5Google identified some changes in the app code. Anticipating the month of February 2024 as one of the moments to definitively say goodbye to this functionality.
However, and as we said previously, at the time of writing these lines we have not yet had the opportunity to learn more information about it. However, the only thing that seems clear is that it will be completely eliminated during the month of February, although it is understood that it will not be during the first few days, since in that case the aforementioned banner would have started appearing much earlier.
Initially, the banner only appears on the Driving Mode home screen. So it is possible that some functionalitys remain intact or acquire other functionalities based on any other mode of operation by Google.
Assistant Features
Despite the presence of the banner that we find when we interact with the application, Google still maintains in his web page information about the functions that the Google assistant offers us when We start driving mode. Among them, the already known ones such as the possibility of making a call using a voice command, asking it to read the messages we have just received or answering calls when our phone rings and we are driving.
We will have to wait what are the next moves by Google so that, when implementing this change, functionalities are not lost in terms of user experience. Meanwhile, and to guarantee that we always have the latest functions available on our smartphone, it is always recommended that we be attentive to possible updates from both the Play Store like our operating system.
