Image credit – raddacle/Reddit
While not exactly a huge problem, one of the things that Google Maps could stand to be improved upon was its placement of Google Assistant, where before it was too obvious and could be considered slightly distracting. However that seems to have changed in a recent update which has made Google Assistant’s presence in Maps more discreet.
This was initially spotted by Redditor raddacle (via 9to5Google) who shared screenshots of the new Google Assistant in Maps. As you can see in the screenshots above, Google Assistant is now more discreet and compact. This was initially announced at Google I/O earlier this year, and it seems that it is now rolling out to users as we speak, or at least to some of them.
In addition to a more discreet Google Assistant, raddacle has also noted some other changes to Google Maps, where phone calls no longer open up the dialer which means that the call starts immediately in the background. This means that users won’t need to switch back to Google Maps whenever they receive a phone call which can add to the distraction.
We’re not sure which devices are primed to receive the changes, but raddacle claims to be running a stock Pixel 2 XL without any beta apps, so we imagine that other Android users can expect these changes soon enough.
Filed in . Read more about Google, Google Assistant and Google Maps.