Waze Drops Google Assistant on iOS, Hints at Gemini-Powered Upgrade

Waze is ditching Google Assistant for Gemini on iOS, and for good reasons

Gemini is replacing Google Assistant across multiple apps and multiple devices at the moment, and if you use Waze on your iPhone you'll soon notice the mapping app swapping the older AI bot for the newer one. As spotted by Tech-Issues Today (via MacRumors), the announcement was made on the official Waze community forums. The announcement acknowledges that Google Assistant on Waze for iOS has been buggy for some time, which is one reason for the switch. "Rather than simply patching a feature that has faced ongoing difficulties, we've decided to phase out Google Assistant on iOS starting tomorrow and replace it with an enhanced voice interaction solution in the near future," reads the forum post. While Gemini isn't mentioned specifically in that post, the enhanced AI app has been named as the foundation of the Conversational Reporting feature that Waze has already previewed, and which is being tested with a limited number of users at the moment. The upgraded Conversational Reporting feature, powered by Gemini, will enable more natural conversations with Waze when you're on the go. It'll understand a broader range of phrases, and will ask follow-up questions where necessary. So you might say "the cars are jammed up ahead" or "there's a mattress in the road", or anything else casual or informal - and Waze understands what you mean and makes sure the correct report is logged in the app for other users. Given the buggy nature of Google Assistant on Waze for iOS, and the superior capabilities of Gemini, it makes a lot of sense for this switch to be made now - especially as Google seems to be speeding up in phasing out Google Assistant. Google Assistant will remain in place on Waze for Android for the foreseeable future, though that change will no doubt happen eventually too. Waze says Conversational Reporting will roll out to everyone in the "coming months".

Waze nixes Google Assistant on iPhones, but something better may be coming

If you're still using Waze as your favorite GPS app, you'll be seeing the loss of a certain function. Waze is ending its support for Google Assistant in the iOS version of the app. A representative for the company took to the Waze public forum yesterday to announce that it will be phasing out Google Assistant after trying to fix the feature for a year. They said the iOS version of Waze has been suffering numerous issues with Google's AI voice chat feature that it had tried to address for "over a year" to no avail, and as result it won't be able to patch it. Recommended Videos "As many of you have likely experienced, this feature has not been working as intended for over a year, and we sincerely apologize for the prolonged inconvenience," the rep wrote. "Rather than simply patching a feature that has faced ongoing difficulties, we've decided to phase out Google Assistant on iOS starting tomorrow and replace it with an enhanced voice interaction solution in the near future. As always, we are committed to keeping you informed and will share more details as we progress." Please enable Javascript to view this content The rep pointed out that Google Assistant will still work on the Android version of Waze. They said "it has consistently performed reliably" on that platform, so not all hope is lost in that regard. The nature of the issues Google Assistant suffered on Waze on iOS are unknown, but the company's plans to nix the feature coincide with Google's push for Gemini. It already comes preinstalled in Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones, but now the chatbot app is being made available for iPhone users as well. Gemini may be what Waze was referring to when it mentioned an "enhanced voice interaction solution," but we don't know for sure if it will integrate that into the iOS app. In the meantime, iPhone users can use Siri to open Waze and ask for directions to a given destination. It won't do anything special beyond that.