Waze loses major iOS feature after admitting defeat

Waze is a popular navigation app, making it the choice for many drivers over Apple Maps. And, as Waze is owned by Google, it has also been something of a Trojan Horse for Google services, like Google Assistant.

However, that has now come to an end.

Writing on the Waze forums, the company announced that it had "decided to phase out Google Assistant on iOS” – so with immediate effect, Google Assistant is no longer available in Waze on iOS.

That means, if you mounted your iPhone on your dash to use Waze, then Google Assistant now won’t be there to help you.

The reason for the change is that Google Assistant in Waze has been really buggy, as the original post says: “This feature has not been working as intended for over a year.” There are reports of Google Assistant never responding, or seeming to listen and then just doing nothing for iPhone users.

“Rather than simply patching a feature that has faced ongoing difficulties, we’ve decided to phase out Google Assistant on iOS," Waze revealed.

Arise, my Gemini apprentice

This isn’t the end of voice control in Waze on iPhone, however. There’s something else coming down the line. Waze plans to “replace it with an enhanced voice interaction solution in the near future".

It doesn’t take an AI genius to figure out that the replacement will be Gemini, with this news about Waze surfacing on the same day that reports on Gemini coming to Android Auto broke. The decision not to support Google Assistant in Waze on iOS is likely because resources are now being put into Gemini instead.

Gemini is being prepared to become the default voice agent for all of Google’s properties. Google previously announced that Google Assistant is retiring, with Gemini replacing it across Android devices, and it’s reasonable to assume that’s going to apply to Google apps on other platforms too.

While we’re waiting for this change to happen, it’s worth noting that Google Assistant will continue in Waze on Android for the time being.

The source post says that “Google Assistant will continue to function seamlessly on Waze for Android, where it has consistently performed reliably”, but from personal experience, I beg to differ – it’s been just as stop-start and unreliable in Android too.

If you’re an iPhone user and you really want voice control over Waze, then I’d recommend using Siri Shortcuts, with Google even providing a support page to help you do this.