Waze on iOS is about to lose a feature that should have been integral to the app, but has in fact spent more than a year in various states of being broken. Google Assistant support is officially being removed from Waze’s iPhone app.
Waze’s Google Assistant feature likely being 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: “It’s important to note that Google Assistant will continue to function seamlessly on Waze for Android, where it has consistently performed reliably.”
It’s unknown exactly what kind of difficulties Waze has run into with Google Assistant on iPhone. But apparently the company has been trying to solve the issues for “over a year” and can’t find a real fix.
Though not explicitly said, some helpful context for this change is that Google has been moving away from its Assistant product to go all-in on Gemini instead.
Undoubtedly, the “enhanced voice interaction solution” Waze hints at is a new Gemini integration. But unfortunately, it’s not ready yet, and until it is users will be without either Google Assistant or Gemini in the app.
Do you use Google Assistant in Waze for iOS? How has it worked for you? Let us know in the comments.
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