ByeBye Android Auto

[alpine]

I've had Android auto working well via the little AA Wireless box for a couple of months now. This morning on starting my car, I get a large message on the car screen, Android Auto needs updates. Please stop the car and follow the instructions on your phone. I see no way of getting rid of the message. So I ignore and get on with my shopping ignoring the lack of navigation and music (even the Lexus map is totally obscured by the message). Back home I investigate further. It wants me to update 'maps' but also, the Google app. I know what it's up to. I have a newer version of Google on another phone and it's forced the appallingly obtrusive Google Assistant onto the phone, which is extremely annoying and very difficult to totally switch off. So, sadly, its time to uninstall all this stuff. I run my life, not Google. I shall try getting  out my old Iphone 6S and swapping to Carplay, but they're already up to the same games...

[Andy B]

I feel your pain.

Unfortunately these things are the price you must pay for having "free" software and services such as Android Auto, Google Maps, WhatsApp et al. It's the way of the (digital) world I'm afraid.

Google and apple are not charitable organisations (far from it, of course) so they have to generate income to fund their services and research & development some way, and the most profitable method is via advertising and other similar revenue streams. This means that the end-user has to put up with aspects of the overall smartphone experience that can be obtrusive; unwanted or, worst of all, intrusive. 

I admire your stance in not giving in to Google and instead vowing to do without their services. I'm not sure I could though - I'm a sucker for technology.

Good luck with the Iphone 6s - I doubt whether many apps will run on that now as I'm sure that apple in their infinite wisdom deemed that model to be obsolete years ago 😠

[scudney]

So much for freedom of choice etc, what a shame but that's the 21st century unfortunately 😪

[Las Palmas]

If what you want is to listen to music any smartphone with memory card can provide better than Google and streaming. If you use Bluetooth to transfer your music MP3 320 resolution will be highest quality. If you want lossless you will have to use AUX cable. Google is a pain with all the spam they fill phones with, but apple is no better. Package disabler pro can get rid of most of the spam from Google up to Android 11. On Android 12 it is no longer perfect.

[Herbie]

2 hours ago, alpine said:

I know what it's up to. I have a newer version of Google on another phone and it's forced the appallingly obtrusive Google Assistant [...] So, sadly, its time to uninstall all this stuff. I run my life, not Google. I shall try getting  out my old iphone 6S and swapping to Carplay

Oh the irony - you do know, don't you, that Apple's 'Siri' does exactly the same thing as Google Assistant?

Take off your tinfoil hat, ignore the conspiracy theories and come out of the cave and into the 21st Century.

As has already been said, this is the price we have to pay for 'free' software such as Google Maps or Waze etc., etc. Similarly, the true cost of Internet access would be hundreds of pounds per month if it wasn't for advertising and data mining. It's sad, but a fact nonetheless, that it is us people who are the commodity and the buying and selling of our data is what makes all this possible. 

You're in the system now mate and it's too late to do anything about it so sit back and enjoy the ride. The only way out of the system is to never be in it in the first place. As soon as your birth was registered you were in the system.

Still, if you want to cut your nose off to spite your face, go right ahead. Me - I'm sticking with Google Assistant and all the great things it can do.

[scudney]

All being rolled in, robots becoming more intelligent,human race more .........eh 🤔🤣😅🤫

[alpine]

2 hours ago, Herbie said:

Oh the irony - you do know, don't you, that Apple's 'Siri' does exactly the same thing as Google Assistant?

Take off your tinfoil hat, ignore the conspiracy theories and come out of the cave and into the 21st Century.

As has already been said, this is the price we have to pay for 'free' software such as Google Maps or Waze etc., etc. Similarly, the true cost of Internet access would be hundreds of pounds per month if it wasn't for advertising and data mining. It's sad, but a fact nonetheless, that it is us people who are the commodity and the buying and selling of our data is what makes all this possible. 

You're in the system now mate and it's too late to do anything about it so sit back and enjoy the ride. The only way out of the system is to never be in it in the first place. As soon as your birth was registered you were in the system.

Still, if you want to cut your nose off to spite your face, go right ahead. Me - I'm sticking with Google Assistant and all the great things it can do.

It, like Siri, is rubbish. I shall just continue to take my profits from Google, apple and the rest so they can make more cash for me from the mugs who form the majority!

Incidentally, the 6S received its last update only a couple of weeks ago. It runs all the things I want and now it's out of maintenance, there will be no further upgrades to mess things up.

[Herbie]

23 minutes ago, alpine said:

It, like Siri, is rubbish.

No, it's not. You obviously don't like it and no one will sway you from that but it's not rubbish.

What could be easier than:

Me: Hey Google
<Google Assistant enters listening mode>
Me: Open Waze
<Waze opens>
Me: Navigate to (Postcode)
Waze: OK, lets go.

I could give lots of other examples of where Google Assistant is anything but rubbish and makes life much easier, but as I said above, you carry on being a Luddite if you like.

[Las Palmas]

2 hours ago, Herbie said:

 Me - I'm sticking with Google Assistant and all the great things it can do.

Me - I have no Google Assistant on my phone. Android 12. All the spam Google put on it take a bit of time to get rid of it, but being interrupted now and again by silly things Google think we cannot live without seeing is not for me. It takes a bit of computer knowledge to get rid of it, but is it great to have a phone without problems from ads etc.

 

[Las Palmas]

3 minutes ago, Herbie said:

No, it's not. You obviously don't like it and no one will sway you from that but it's not rubbish.

What could be easier than:

Me: Hey Google
<Google Assistant enters listening mode>
Me: Open Waze
<Waze opens>
Me: Navigate to (Postcode)
Waze: OK, lets go.

I could give lots of other examples of where Google Assistant is anything but rubbish and makes life much easier, but as I said above, you carry on being a Luddite if you like.

I think Alpine is partly right. No need to give Google or Microsoft more than they have already; It is possible to have all the goodies from both companies and give them very much less than they try to get.

[Harrier Man]

1 hour ago, Herbie said:

No, it's not. You obviously don't like it and no one will sway you from that but it's not rubbish.

What could be easier than:

Me: Hey Google
<Google Assistant enters listening mode>
Me: Open Waze
<Waze opens>
Me: Navigate to (Postcode)
Waze: OK, lets go.

I could give lots of other examples of where Google Assistant is anything but rubbish and makes life much easier, but as I said above, you carry on being a Luddite if you like.

Me: Hey Lexus

<Lexus wakes up>

Me: Navigate to F**** (my home town about 20km away; not a rude word!)

<Lexus: I have set your destination to Paris>

Oh well, the 1,700km drive took my mind off the day's troubles at work and Paris is beautiful at this time of year!

 

[JayWales]

I'm not sure what aspect of Google Assistant is intrusive.  It's on my phone but I've disabled listening for the wake word, so it never gets used in my normal day. Nothing gets displayed or anything that I don't request, no ads etc. So not sure where they're coming from for you.

I do use it in the car with Android Auto to navigate somewhere. Press the mic button "navigate to blah" done.

If you don't like it, surely just disable it rather than throw out all the other advantages of Android Auto?

[RXtoNX]

29 minutes ago, Harrier Man said:

Me: Hey Lexus

<Lexus wakes up>

Me: Navigate to F**** (my home town about 20km away; not a rude word!)

<Lexus: I have set your destination to Paris>

Oh well, the 1,700km drive took my mind off the day's troubles at work and Paris is beautiful at this time of year!

 

I’m happy now I know it’s not only me that has to drive to European cities which the car thinks is en-route to local destinations😅

[Andy B]

11 minutes ago, JayWales said:

I'm not sure what aspect of Google Assistant is intrusive.  It's on my phone but I've disabled listening for the wake word, so it never gets used in my normal day. Nothing gets displayed or anything that I don't request, no ads etc. So not sure where they're coming from for you.

I do use it in the car with Android Auto to navigate somewhere. Press the mic button "navigate to blah" done.

If you don't like it, surely just disable it rather than throw out all the other advantages of Android Auto?

I think there is a groundswell of opinion (not one that I necessarily share by the way) that the Google Assistant (and Siri and Alexa for that matter) is still listening to you even if you believe you have disabled that feature. 

From my point of view the benefits that these virtual assistants provide far outweigh any of the drawbacks (real or imagined) so I will continue to use the functionality until the pendulum swings the other way. 

[ColinBarber]

20 minutes ago, Andy B said:

I think there is a groundswell of opinion (not one that I necessarily share by the way) that the Google Assistant (and Siri and Alexa for that matter) is still listening to you even if you believe you have disabled that feature. 

The end devices don't have enough computing power, storage, Battery life etc to perform full speech recognition. All they do is listen out for a few key words (which is why you are limited to what the trigger word/phase can be), and then send the rest to the cloud for processing. It is very easy to see that traffic being sent to the cloud with network sniffers and therefore these companies will get found out very quickly if that was happening (as was the case with LG and their TVs some years ago and they had to issue a firmware fix).

[Steve Oliver]

19 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

The end devices don't have enough computing power, storage, battery life etc to perform full speech recognition. All they do is listen out for a few key words (which is why you are limited to what the trigger word/phase can be), and then send the rest to the cloud for processing. It is very easy to see that traffic being sent to the cloud with network sniffers and therefore these companies will get found out very quickly if that was happening (as was the case with LG and their TVs some years ago and they had to issue a firmware fix).

And indeed the assistants (well, Google anyway) have been sniffed, and they DO NOT send anything to the servers until the wake words are heard. They are always listening, but not always listening "in".

[PRT68]

Well, I must be a complete dinosaur.

I just haven't a clue what everyone's on about. Perhaps that's the best way. 

[Caspa]

All a bit melodramatic when you can simply disable stuff or use a different service, but each to their own I suppose. 

Also, if it's the (old?) update I'm thinking of then it's just the local phone version of AA being deprecated in favour of a Google assistant version, the car one works as before. 

Thankfully my phone doesn't spam me with stuff and it didn't take anything more than using my preferred settings, so unsure what people are experiencing.

On device processing is also a thing on newer Pixel devices, which is why it's so fast on them. 

[Gureamu]

Anybody know when we can expect to see wireless Android Auto?