Google Assistant support for Waze arrives in the US
A few months ago, Google Assistant arrived in Waze, which let users in the US ask Google for anything they might need to do like make a call, send a message, or check the weather. Of course, this only made Google Assistant available in the app – it didn’t allow for Waze-related actions. Until now, that is.
In a Medium blog post, Waze the app’s new support with Google Assistant. Now, you can perform Waze tasks while driving and without having to touch your device. You can now say “Hey Google, report traffic,” or “Hey Google, avoid tolls,”. To do the latter, you’d normally have tap around a couple of layers of menus to switch your route.
Currently, any Android device in the US set to English should let you enable Google Assistant within Waze. To start, first open Waze. If its available, Google Assistant should pop-up automatically. Otherwise, you can tap the mic or see the Google Assistant settings in the Waze app.
We couldn’t find the Google Assistant setting in the Waze app on our Pixel 3a XL. If you don’t see the integration right away, it may take some time for the feature to roll out.
Waze offers the following examples of what you can say:
- Hey Google, navigate home
- Hey Google, navigate to a coffee shop
- Hey Google, find gas stations
- Hey Google, report traffic
- Hey Google, what’s my ETA?
- Hey Google, show alternative routes
- Hey Google, show directions
- Hey Google, allow/avoid tolls