Google has recently given the Google Assistant experience in Android Auto a facelift. The new look, which pops up during voice chats with the Assistant, is drawing comparisons to Apple’s Siri on CarPlay. We’ll let you decide if that’s indeed the case.

First spotted by 9to5Google, Google Assistant on Android Auto seems to be getting a new circular hovering UI with a dynamic, colorful wave that animates in response to voice activity, occupying the lower portion of the screen. Notably, this new interface doesn’t replace the Google Assistant bar at the bottom of the screen, which is still your go-to for starting commands. Instead, this new design takes center stage when the Assistant is waiting for your response — like when it needs you to pick which coffee shop you actually want directions to.

However, this design choice bears a close resemblance to Siri’s visual representation on CarPlay. Siri on CarPlay also features a colorful, animated circular wave UI that appears during voice interactions and is positioned in the lower part of the screen. Google’s version, naturally, uses its distinctive color palette.

While some might wonder if a new UI is really necessary when Google Assistant is already occupying the bottom bar, it definitely adds a bit of visual flair to the Android Auto experience. But let’s be honest, the resemblance to Siri’s interface is hard to miss, and it’s certainly got people talking.

It’s not clear yet how widely this new look has been rolled out or if it’s here to stay as the default for Google Assistant on Android Auto. It’s worth noting that Google is gradually transitioning to Gemini as its default assistant on mobile devices, though Android Auto has yet to experience this shift.

Few things in life are as irritating as a song playing on an endless loop in your head, while its name escapes you. Fortunately, Google can help you identify that elusive song title. So next time you are at a party and want to add the groovy music blasting in the background to your playlist, or you want to take over as deejay, you can use the steps below to identify the song.

The Dumbening started last week with Home/Nest voice devices not being able to turn off either my Nest or my Cielo controlled thermostats. Today on the drive into my kid’s school we had a very fun trip where we learned Kate Bush only has one song that would play, Regina Spektor makes music that contains a total of 6-10 seconds and then ends, and attempts to play any individual song require me to unlock my device which is connected to my car, and then it plays a random TV show.

Let’s use a little smarts Google Assistant. If I am driving, connected to my car’s Bluetooth connection, don’t play movies?

This was not a good trip in. We did finally get it to play the only Kate Bush song in the entire universe in its entirety, but the goal at the outset was to play anything but that song.

The phone kept locking, requiring me to unlock it to get the wrong results. Something that was not supposed to happen for 4 hours or so because that’s how it’s set.

Attempts to play Good Times by Edie Brickell, or honestly Good Times by anyone who has recorded a song named Good Times (there are many) were greeted with that I needed to unlock my phone and what appeared to be a half-hearted effort to locate a TV show similar to, but not Good Times.

At this point my ten year old told me to stop because it was obvious that Google Assistant had the dumbs today and any and all attempts were futile. It was in response to this that Kate Bush started playing again, the only song that exists evidently, and attempts to skip it went to a song that never started playing or had an insane quiet intro, and then that one Kate Bush song… again.

While I’ve often had issues with Google Assistant while driving, this was picking up what I was saying. But man it was not returning anything useful today.

Apple PR – seriously, put a camera in my car you’ve got your next Siri advertisement.

Google Assistant reached levels of dumb today that are being mocked by my 10 year old by Paul E King first appeared on Pocketables.

The Dumbening started last week with Home/Nest voice devices not being able to turn off either my Nest or my Cielo controlled thermostats. Today on the drive into my kid’s school we had a very fun trip where we learned Kate Bush only has one song that would play, Regina Spektor makes music that contains a total of 6-10 seconds and then ends, and attempts to play any individual song require me to unlock my device which is connected to my car, and then it plays a random TV show.

Let’s use a little smarts Google Assistant. If I am driving, connected to my car’s Bluetooth connection, don’t play movies?

This was not a good trip in. We did finally get it to play the only Kate Bush song in the entire universe in its entirety, but the goal at the outset was to play anything but that song.

The phone kept locking, requiring me to unlock it to get the wrong results. Something that was not supposed to happen for 4 hours or so because that’s how it’s set.

Attempts to play Good Times by Edie Brickell, or honestly Good Times by anyone who has recorded a song named Good Times (there are many) were greeted with that I needed to unlock my phone and what appeared to be a half-hearted effort to locate a TV show similar to, but not Good Times.

At this point my ten year old told me to stop because it was obvious that Google Assistant had the dumbs today and any and all attempts were futile. It was in response to this that Kate Bush started playing again, the only song that exists evidently, and attempts to skip it went to a song that never started playing or had an insane quiet intro, and then that one Kate Bush song… again.

While I’ve often had issues with Google Assistant while driving, this was picking up what I was saying. But man it was not returning anything useful today.

Apple PR – seriously, put a camera in my car you’ve got your next Siri advertisement.

Google Assistant reached levels of dumb today that are being mocked by my 10 year old by Paul E King first appeared on Pocketables.

Formerly known as Google Bard, Google’s AI chatbot boasts a new name and a host of new capabilities. More significantly, a new Gemini app can now replace Google Assistant on your Android phone, assuming your phone is set to US English. I won’t spend too much time diving into the confusing nuances of Google’s AI strategy (or seemingly lack thereof). Instead, I’ve left that scrambled chaos to more eloquent voices, and simply go hands-on with the Gemini app.

According to Google

Google announced Assistant AI summaries for Android Auto alongside the launch of the Galaxy s24 series. The feature utilizes Google Assistant to automatically summarize long messages or group chats while you’re driving without having to reach for your phone.

In a support document, Google has now detailed exactly how to use Google Assistant to summarize messages on Android Auto. Before jumping in, Google notes the feature won’t be available for all devices, regions, countries, and languages.

“Artificial intelligence generates your message summaries, so there could be mistakes. You can turn this off any time in Android Auto settings,” Google notes. It further informs that “Assistant doesn’t log messages or summaries, and the interactions aren’t used to train the Large Language Model (LLM).”

Additionally, the document says that messages over 40 words meet the requirement for AI-generated summaries. If there’s only one long message or multiple messages from the same sender or group, the messages are summarized automatically when you tap Play Aloud.
Otherwise, Assistant will read the message without summarization. If there are multiple conversations from different senders or apps, Assistant will read them individually.

How to opt-in for Android Auto Assistant summaries

The first time a user receives such a message, Assistant will play a request for approval to summarize. Users will need to consent by saying “yes” to play out the summary. Users can also manually opt-in for Assistant summaries on Android Auto by going into Android Auto Settings > Notifications > Play AI message summaries.

If Assistant’s request to play out the summarized message is denied, the feature will automatically get disabled, and users will have to reactivate it in the settings on the phone and Android Auto.

Google announced Assistant AI summaries for Android Auto alongside the launch of the Galaxy s24 series. The feature utilizes Google Assistant to automatically summarize long messages or group chats while you’re driving without having to reach for your phone.