Sometimes a feature doesn’t work out for an app that’s not on its native platform.
As handy as the Waze app is on iOS, a company representative has confirmed that the Google Assistant feature is officially being removed from the app after more than a year of the feature being broken. It’s thought that Waze’s Google Assistant feature will likely be replaced by Gemini soon
On Waze’s public forums, a company rep announced the following:
“We’d like to share an update with you regarding Google Assistant on Waze iOS.
As many of you have likely experienced, this feature has not been working as intended for over a year, and we sincerely apologize for the prolonged inconvenience.
Rather than simply patching a feature that has faced ongoing difficulties, we’ve decided to phase out Google Assistant on iOS starting tomorrow and replace it with an enhanced voice interaction solution in the near future. As always, we are committed to keeping you informed and will share more details as we progress.”
The post concludes with the following statement: “It’s important to note that Google Assistant will continue to function seamlessly on Waze for Android, where it has consistently performed reliably.”
Developers have not specified exactly what kinds of difficulties Waze has run into with incorporating the Google Assistant feature on iOS.
Waze has hinted at a new Gemini integration, albeit this doesn’t seem to be ready yet, and until it is users will be without either Google Assistant or Gemini in the app.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.