Text play stopped working in Android Auto with Pixel 3a

[955450]

As of yesterday, my ability to play text messages through Android Auto stopped working. All was correct two days before, then nothing yesterday, with no changes (that I am aware of) to phone or app settings on phone or car.

With Android Auto running and the phone plugged in, I get the notification - audio and visual - of a new incoming message. But when I press "play" the display goes to the "dancing colored google dots" as is normal, but then they stay dancing for beyond the normal three seconds or so. Longest I've endured has been five minutes.

I've tried turning off the car, disconnecting the phone, restarting the phone, quitting Android Auto and restarting it. Nothing has worked.

And, again, it worked fine the day before it didn't.

 

[foxbat121]

It could be Google server side issue which happens quite often. And it could also be a known bug that Google Assistant won't speak out in Android Auto for quite a few users. It is very unlikely your phone's problem.

 

[955450]

It could be Google server side issue which happens quite often. And it could also be a known bug that Google Assistant won't speak out in Android Auto for quite a few users. It is very unlikely your phone's problem.

Thanks. Android updated my phone yesterday, so it will be interesting to test this. Just for clarity though, I never had a problem with this issue, including it working correctly the day before it didn't.

 

[physicsguy]

I started having issues the just last day or two as well. On maps, GPS freezes and my location on the map doesn't move as I drive. I can stop and restart and it picks up where I am, only to freeze again. Works without issues using maps on the phone (S9+) I went to the app permissions to make sure location was on, and noticed "SMS" permissions was off. I cleared app cache and data and that seemed to fix it for the time being, but after clearing data, all the permissions were off, so on turning them all back on, I had the freezing issue on maps again. Turning off the SMS permission allowed maps to work as usual. Sounds like something wonky is going on, haven't really troubleshooted too much, but working so far with all but the SMS permissions on. Silly me, I didn't try texting in the car via AA to see if it still worked (I use a third party texting app which may not be a problem with the settings).

 

[foxbat121]

If you are using default Message app, Google now switched most users in US to Google based RCS recently.

As for GPS issue, When connected to Android Auto Headunit, it will use the GPS antenna in your car, not the one in the phone.

 

[955450]

Sometime last week I believe I had a new update to my OS, and at that point, SMS started working when I wasn't in Android Auto, and the Android Auto text play resumed working.

Today was a snowy day where I live, and the text play worked, and then five minutes later - without disconnecting my phone or turning off the car, it didn't. My guess is that the weather was disruptive to the text play, although I am not 100% sure how possible this is.

But the problem appears to have (mostly) fixed itself.