Waze rose to worldwide fame when it launched several years back as a navigation app with traffic reporting capabilities and more features. A few years later, it caught the attention of Google and got snapped up by the search giant in 2013. Since then, the acquisition paved the way for the transition of many Waze features to Google Maps including its traffic reporting on that same year and later its availability on Android Auto.
Today, another major service from Google has introduced support for Waze: Google Assistant. The Mountain View-based company announced today that it has started rolling out Assistant to Waze on Android in the U.S. for English speakers only.
The launch of Assistant on Waze comes a few months after it added native support for Google Maps, meaning you can access the digital assistant directly from your Android phone without having to unlock it as long as you"ve enabled this feature in the settings menu. It should be noted that this capability has long been available on the Pixel devices prior to that.
Assistant brings to Waze the same set of capabilities that it already performs in Maps such as controlling music, making a call, or finding the best routes. You can also ask Assistant on Waze to avoid tolls or report traffic, for example, all by using your voice.