Google announced the replacement for Android Auto’s phone screen experience back at Google I/O 2019. Then in November last year, the company brought Google Assistant Driving Mode as an early preview to Maps. Today, the company announced that it is making the Google Assistant Driving Mode available to everyone around the globe.
The news was announced by Google via an announcement on its support page. “This preview of Google Assistant driving mode, which has been available to Android users in English in the United States, will now be available to Android users in English in Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, India and Singapore,” Google wrote in its support page.
Google says that with the new driving-friendly Assistant interface, users can use their voice to send and receive calls and texts, review new messages across their messaging apps in one place, and get a read-out of their texts. Users can also play media from hundreds of providers around the globe, including YouTube Music, Spotify, Google Podcasts and using this mode.
To use Google Assistant Driving Mode in Maps, users need to begin navigating to a destination with Google Maps and tap on the pop up to get started. Alternatively, they can head to Google Assistant settings on their Android phones or say “Hey Google, open Assistant settings” and then turn on ‘Driving Mode’, which appears in the Transportation section.
It is worth noting that to use this feature, users will need an Android smartphone with 4GB of RAM running on Android 9.0 or higher.