Google Assistant routines are not supported by Android Auto and Google has announced that there’s no word on when they will become available again
The bad news is that Android Auto still doesn’t recognize Google Assistant routines, the good news is that Google knows this. But it hasn’t announced any fixes anytime soon. That’s the extreme summary of the back-and-forth between the Android Police website and Google itself, which, months and months later than requested, has finally responded to the online publication.
And it has responded in the way probably least appreciated by users: we know, routines are still not supported on Android Auto. The company will release more details in the future about when you can also use routines from your car, but it doesn’t specify when it will do so. And all this is very frustrating for users who, until October 2018, routines on Android Auto used them without any problems. Then Google decided to change the role of Android Auto in its ecosystem, as also confirmed by the strange fate that befell the smartphone app: disappeared from cell phones with the update to the Android 10 operating system, then made available through the “Android Auto for phones” app.
Android Auto: what still doesn’t work
What still doesn’t work on Android Auto today are the routines, i.e. groups of commands given by voice to be executed one after the other, possibly according to pre-established conditions. You can create them with your smartphone via the Google Home app, and they work well and without major problems on almost all devices compatible with the Google ecosystem. For a short time, before October 2018, they also worked from Android Auto: via voice commands it was possible to launch, for example, a routine to preheat the house, so that it would be warm when we returned. In October 2018, more or less when the routines arrived in Italy, suddenly they no longer worked on Android Auto. Without Google telling us why.
Android Auto for phones
What can be speculated at the moment is that Google is experiencing serious problems in fine-tuning the “driving” mode of its voice assistant Google Assistant. This mode is long overdue and should replace most of the features of Android Auto. In theory, the user, once in the car, should activate this mode and the smartphone should interface with Android Auto to extend its potential. A smartphone, in fact, is updated much more often than a car. However, all of this is yet to be seen but, in the meantime, the Android Auto app has disappeared from Android 10 and has been replaced by the “Android Auto for phones” app that, in just a few months, has already been downloaded by 100 million users worldwide.