Google Assistant Driving Mode Preview Expands to India and Other Countries
Apr. 17, 2021In November last year, Google released anearly preview of its long-anticipated Google Assistant driving modefor Android users in the United States. The company has now expanded the preview program to more regions outside the US, including India.
According to Google’ssupport postspotted first by9to5Google, the Google Assistant driving mode is now available to Android users in English in Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, India, and Singapore. Google points out that you’ll need an Android phone with at least 4GB of RAM running Android Pie or higher to use the feature.Image: Google
For the uninitiated, Assistant-powered driving mode brings convenient features such as the ability touse your voice to send and receive calls and texts. You can also make the Assistant read your message out loud, and the feature also integrates with popularmusic streaming services.
When we tried accessing Assistant driving mode on multiple devices that satisfy the company’s eligibility criteria here in India, it was not available. This suggests that the feature is seeing a staged rollout and it should hopefully be available to all in a few days.
To check if you have Assistant driving mode on your Android phone,open Assistant settingswith the command ‘Hey Google, open Assistant settings’. Now,head to the Transportation section. If you see a toggle for Driving mode on this page, enable it to access the feature. Also, do not forget to update the Google app to the latest version via the Google Play Store to increase your chances of seeing this feature in action.
Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.
