Hands-On Tech 266 Transcript
Please be advised that this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word-for-word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-free version of the show.
Mikah Sargent [00:00:00]:
Coming up on Hands-On Tech. Android Auto aficionados, stay tuned because this episode we are doing some troubleshooting. Here we go. Hello and welcome to Hands-On Tech. I am Mikah Sargent and today we are answering your tech questions. Yes, that's right. This is the show where you write in with your tech questions.
Mikah Sargent [00:00:29]:
hot@twit.tv, and I do my best to answer them. This week's question comes in from Jeff. Jeff says I drive a car for a local auto dealership. Multiple different types of cars, and this happens in all of them. I use Android Auto and recently something has changed. First of all, if I get a text message, the banner that would typically show at the top of the screen stopped appearing. The only way I know that I received a text is a blue dot with a number in it on the screen. We call those badges on iOS.
Mikah Sargent [00:01:01]:
When I touch the blue dot, I see the banner slash first line of the message. But when I touch on the play button, a bubble pops up saying that voice commands aren't available at this time. So Jeff is hitting that play button to play back what the message says, and it's not working for some reason. Jeff says, I do have all of the switches and settings turned on. Play a sound, show the first line, et cetera. Similarly, if I hit the microphone button to speed a question or command, I think Jeff meant speak button to speak a question or command, I get the same bubble. What are your thoughts? Thanks. Well, Jeff, you are not alone, friend.
Mikah Sargent [00:01:40]:
I've actually seen this pop up quite a bit because Google is in the middle of doing a transition in Android Auto, and that seems to be at the root of a lot of the issues that people are experiencing. The Google Assistant integration in Android Auto is either disabled, has lost permissions, or it's been affected. And this is the big thing been affected by Google's ongoing migration from Google Assistant to Gemini for Android Auto. Google has been rolling Gemini out as a replacement voice service in cars all throughout 2025 and now into 2026. And I've seen a lot of users saying, hey, I've got that problem too. I've seen my message banners aren't appearing. I've seen voice commands aren't available. I've seen that microphone button crossed out.
Mikah Sargent [00:02:33]:
It is almost always something that can be fixed on the phone. It's not something that's going on with the car. Of course, these are projection systems in almost every case. And by that I mean on iOS and on Android, it is the phone that is responsible for Passing along the UI and all the interactions to the car. It's only newer cars and newer infotainment systems that have built in the UI and the interactions and the interface. Up to that point, it's always been the phone sort of saying, here, let me just use that built in screen on the car to show what I want to show. And so in that case, typically you are able to follow or fix it on the phone. And that also then lends to the fact that you're seeing it regardless of the car that you're in.
Mikah Sargent [00:03:25]:
It's not because the car has received an update that is causing this issue, this issue. It is instead happening on your phone. So let's see what we can do. I've sort of grouped these into simpler things to do before we move on to more complex things. I know that you've said that you have toggled on all of the settings, but let's just go through everything. So first try going in your Android phone settings, apps, default apps, and then Digital assistant app. Now of course depending on which Android version and which manufacturer you have, it may be slightly different. But you're wanting to get to the choice of the digital assistant that you're using.
Mikah Sargent [00:04:05]:
You need to make sure either Google Assistant or Gemini is selected, not none. If you recently installed Gemini or if it auto installed by way of an update, then it could have left that assistant slot empty. Google does have a guide for changing your default assistant that we'll include in the show notes, so you can follow through that process there and make sure that you have the correct assistant chosen, which in this case is Gemini. That is the future of Android for now. You know, who knows whether Google keeps it that way. In any case, the second thing that you want to do, open the Gemini or Google app and complete setup. If Gemini was installed but you didn't finish the onboarding, well, then some of those voice features may not work in Android Auto. There's a chance that you're still getting your normal voice features that you would expect when you're interacting with your phone, but that could just be holdover from when it was the Google Assistant.
Mikah Sargent [00:05:02]:
And then in doing the update, it sort of kicked out the Google Assistant but did not then replace it with Gemini. So open the app standalone, sign in if you're not signed in, accept the permissions if you haven't already, run through the intro, and then try Android Auto again after that. I know that you said you did this, but just go double check, verify that microphone and notification permissions are as they should be for Android Auto. So that's again could be slightly different, but settings, apps, Android Auto permissions you want to check, microphone you want to check notifications you want to check nearby devices, they should all be allowed. If notifications got revoked or changed, then that could be why those message banners aren't showing up. And Google actually has an Android Auto troubleshooting page that covers permissions resets so that even if it seems like it's turned on, you may want to reset those permissions and have it go through the process again. After that, check Android Auto's own notification settings. Yes, those are separate.
Mikah Sargent [00:06:11]:
The Android Auto app on the phone will also have notifications and you can also go to settings, connected devices, Android Auto and then go to notifications to get there. But you want to make sure that show conversations and show first line of messages are on there. That's probably what you were talking about whenever you were talking about having everything toggled on. But the in car settings and the phone size side settings are separately accessible notifications areas and so you want to make sure that they're both set to the same thing. Because the phone side is from what I was reading, it has override on what the car wants. Because the idea is that you should be able to plug your phone into any car that you're driving and have those settings remain the same. So check out messaging and Android Auto. Again this is a doc, a document, a support document that has that and it'll talk about those different toggles.
Mikah Sargent [00:07:10]:
But the point is that doing so you want to make sure that those settings will match up and that should also help with issues that you might have. Then you're going to go with a tried and true troubleshooting step, which is to clear the cache for Android Auto and the Assistant app that's settings, apps, Android Auto Storage, clear cache and then do the same thing for the Google app for excuse me, for Gemini. Now don't clear data unless clearing the cache alone doesn't work because clearing data will full on reset your Android Auto preferences. So I don't really recommend that unless clearing the cache just is not working. After that confirm that you have hey you know who turned on or voice access is turned on while the phone is locked and while you are driving. So there are settings in settings, voice, voice match, hey you know who if it's toggled off, the mic button in the car will fail and so be sure to check out the guide that will also include for voice match setup to see the steps that you follow. There and then of course, the fun one, update everything. Android Auto, the Google app, Gemini, they all update through the Play Store.
Mikah Sargent [00:08:34]:
I imagine that you have everything updated, but it's just something to do. An out of date Android Auto paired with a freshly migrated Gemini can be a cause of failure, especially as again, Google attempts to make the transition across all of Android. But Android, depending on what phone it's installed on and what manufacturer is in charge, could all be wreaking havoc on that change. And then of course, the last resort is to fully uninstall Android Auto and then let it reinstall. So what you do in that case is settings, apps, Android Auto, the three dot menu, uninstall updates and then reconnect it to the car, let it update fresh from the Play Store and do it that way. Honestly, the likely culprit, given that this started recently and affects every car you drive, is the Gemini transition. And honestly, again, this has been other people's issue as well. Either Gemini got installed and the Digital Assistant default got cleared, or the handoff between Google Assistant and Gemini left Android Auto without a working voice backend.
Mikah Sargent [00:09:42]:
So step one and step two, upon doing those should take care of it. So if it's not fixed by checking which voice assistant is set to default and not fixed, then by opening the Gemini or Google app to complete the setup process, then you want to move on to the next ones because there's something else much deeper going on. But my guess is yes, Google said, we're Gemini now and your phone is going, okay, let's figure this out. So again, as I always mentioned, please let us know, Jeff, if that solution, one of those, what was it, eight solutions solved things for you, and I'd love to know which of those, because this is a problem that a lot of people are experiencing. People listening to this episode will go, oh, I had that too, and be able to follow up and have that answered. Now this is a follow up, which I'm very excited about. Recently someone wrote in about syncing between two PCs. Okay? So the person said, look, I'm on the road a lot.
Mikah Sargent [00:10:52]:
I have a personal machine and a work machine and wouldn't it be great if they both had the same settings, the same apps, the same this, the same that, so that regardless of which device I was using, it all just remained the same. And I went through some different options for syncing files and services, settings, et cetera, between them. And it's a very involved process. Gary has written in with another suggestion. Gary says, micah, I was listening to this episode and you sort of touched on this idea but didn't develop it. So I thought I would do so Instead of having two machines synced, how about remoting to a Microsoft VM in the cloud? Microsoft supports this as Windows 365. I think it has the advantage of you only having one PC to install your work apps and data on. You can even remote to the VM from an iPad or an iPhone.
Mikah Sargent [00:11:49]:
Half the licenses to pay for. No problems keeping the correct version in use. The computer at each location has very minimal requirements. It's an interesting thought and it's one that may work for a lot of people. The idea is that your computer itself isn't local and is always available. And so you just log in wherever you are, log into the terminal, as it were, and there's a machine out there that can run all of the stuff that you want to do. And I think that for many people this is a nice enough solution. But I have found that techie people, which if you're rocking two machines and you listen to tech podcasts and you know enough to sync things between two of them, then you're a techie person.
Mikah Sargent [00:12:52]:
Techie people like control has been my experience. I'm one of them. I like control. I like to have control over the device that I'm using. I like to be able to adjust the settings and I like to know that if I don't have. We also like contingencies. That's part of control. We're not just controlling our environment, we're controlling potential future outcomes, being prepared for those.
Mikah Sargent [00:13:23]:
We're all scouts, whatever the be prepared. Right, we're all scouts. And so given that a VM somewhere in the cloud is a reasonable solution. But is it a reasonable solution for someone who has the paranoia of what happens if their VM services down that day? What if I can't gain access to my files? What if the machines not what I expected it to be? What if I can't change the settings to this? Or what if I can't change the settings to that? Or. There are so many questions that come up with it that I think it is one possible solution. But I don't know if it's the solution for this archetype of individual. But there are many people who are happy with a virtualized machine and obviously that's part of the reason why Microsoft offers it and why for the longest time we've been talking about sort of moving PCs to the cloud and not doing this stuff locally. So yeah, that's a thought.
Mikah Sargent [00:14:34]:
In any case, thank you Gary for writing in with your suggestion. And I'd be curious to hear if our dear listener who asked about syncing between machines ended up going with one of the solutions that I suggested or went the route that Gary's suggesting here, as it is one of the ways that it could go. All righty, everyone. That is going to bring us to the end of this episode of Hands-On Tech. I remind you, hot@twit.tv is how you get in touch, and I look forward to answering your question or hearing that your question was answered and a solution was provided that worked for you. Always happy to hear that too: hot@twit.tv. Goodbye everyone.
