Waze is dropping Google Assistant on iPhone after leaving it broken for ‘over a year’

Waze is getting rid of Google Assistant for users on iPhones, citing “ongoing difficulties” with the integration. In an update on Tuesday, Waze said it plans on replacing it with an “enhanced voice integration solution” in the future, which is most likely Gemini.

“As many of you have likely experienced, this feature [Google Assistant] has not been working as intended for over a year, and we sincerely apologize for the prolonged inconvenience,” Waze said. “Rather than simply patching a feature that has faced ongoing difficulties, we’ve decided to phase out Google Assistant on iOS starting tomorrow.”

Over the past year, many Waze users on iPhones have reported experiencing issues with giving Google Assistant voice commands. One user notes that saying “Hey Google” would open Google Assistant, but it wouldn’t detect their voice.

Google Assistant for Waze on Android phones will continue to work — but the question is for how long. Earlier this month, Google announced plans to transition more users from Google Assistant to Gemini, adding that Assistant “will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices or available for new downloads on mobile app stores” starting “later this year.”