Even though Google has owned Waze for the past five years, integration with Google Assistant only happened recently and wasn’t as widely available as some people hoped. But that’s all about to change as they have announced you can “Hey Google” your way through your entire drive. The integration is now live for users in the U.S. as long as your default language in the navigation app is set to English. This also means you don’t have to switch between various apps while driving, as long as the things you want to do are supported within Waze of course.
Navigation isn’t the only thing you can do with the Google Assistant integration, although it’s, of course, the main thing you want to do when you’re driving somewhere. But you can also do things like report a pothole, make an appointment on your calendar, play some music, or find an establishment you need to go to, all without having to touch your phone and leave the Waze app. Well, you shouldn’t really touch your phone while driving so this should be useful and more importantly, safe.
To start things off, all you have to do is open the Waze app and if it’s already available on your phone, Google Assistant will appear. If it doesn’t show up, tap on the mic in the app or go to the settings in the Voice & Sound section (not while driving please). Then tap “enable now” so you can start using Google’s voice assistant within the Waze app. If you’re not sure yet if you want that, you can always tap on “Not now” in the meantime.
Here are some of the voice commands that you can use when driving to somewhere or helping your driver navigate:
* 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
Update your Waze app to the latest version and make sure that your language settings are in English. Hopefully though Google will roll out the integration to more countries and more languages as well.