“This issue poses a more significant problem for users using Assistant in Android Auto via Bluetooth connection as it is the only mode of communication while driving”
Over the past few months, there have been multiple reports that the Google Assistant is automatically muting itself over Bluetooth. According to users who have been facing the issue, Assistant mutes itself simultaneously as it mutes media playback to respond to user queries. This means that the query or the request remains unanswered. This poses a more significant issue for users using Assistant in Android Auto via Bluetooth connection as it is the only mode of communication while driving. Reports about the bug have started flooding in from September 2018, but Google doesn’t seem to have fixed it yet.
Furthermore, a user claims that turning off ‘OK/Hey Google” detection has fixed the issue for him. But then again it completely negates the point of having an Assistant supported Bluetooth device if you can’t trigger it hands-free. It is also speculated that update to Android 9.0 Pie seems to be causing the problem. However, not all devices are affected, as the issue appears to be random. The affected devices list include the Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S7, and P20 Pro, among others. Despite many posts on Google Android Auto, Assistant Forums, none of the executives from the brand responded to the issue, apart from posting generic replies.
Separately, a new commit, called “OneChrome demo” was added to the Chromium Gerrit source code recently, suggesting that Google could be developing integrating ChromeOS with Android by means of sharing phone numbers, clipboard text, Wi-Fi passwords so that it would be easy to sync every time the same Google account is used, instead of typing again. However, these features are currently under development, so no timeline is set for public rollout yet.