[Updated] Android Auto reply command broken for WhatsApp messages, company investigating

This story is being continuously updated….new updates are being added at the bottom…..

The Mountain-View, California based tech giant Google is buckled up to offer the best in Android Automotive OS. The company recently opened gates for third-party apps like Spotify and others to make entertainment and music part of their Android-based OS for cars.

However, on the other hand, coming to their in-car infotainment system Android Auto, things appear to be falling apart at a faster pace recently. Of late, more and more issue are being reported. A few days, back we highlighted an AA issue regarding message notification and call ringtone sound.

And now, we’ve caught sight of another AA functionality gone off track.

Users say on voice commanding Android Auto to reply to a WhatsApp message now they get to hear things like “I want to answer you, but maybe you understand better if you ask me in another way,””I do everything I can,” or “Sorry. I do what I can. Maybe the connection is slow?”

Here’s how one of the complainants word the problem behavior at Android Auto Help:

The application worked very well but now when receiving a message from WhatsApp and saying the voice command “Reply” the application went crazy because it answers “I want to answer you but maybe you understand better if you ask me in another way”. Do I have to ask for it more kindly? It happens to me with two phones, a Samsung Note 9 and a Samsung S8

The same user even routed to Twitter and shared a small video clip of Reply functionality not working for them. See for yourself:

As far as we can see, this ‘reply command not working’ issue affects Android Auto users running the service in different languages like Spanish, Italian, Dutch and others.

What’s good is that just when reports began to proliferate, a Android Auto forums community specialist (tagged as Android Auto team) dropped by. They asked the complainants to share the following details to ensure if the problem was specific to WhatsApp.

• Error message: if available
• Brand and model of the phone:
• Brand and model of automobile unit: if you use Android Auto on the screen of your car:
• Are you using Android Auto on your phone screen or on the car’s screen ?:
• Does the problem occur outside the Android Auto application ?:
• Android operating system version:
• Application and messaging version:

Following that, just a few hours back, the same community specialist informed users they’ll be contacting some through email for bug reports to diagnose the issue. Here’s what they said (translated from Spanish):

We appreciate your patience since we have been investigating this problem. We will be sending an email to some of you separately to request bug reports. These reports really help our engineers solve and better understand the problem.

While right now Android Auto team is investigating, we hope thy catch hold of the root cause and do the needful to fix things up at the soonest. Rest assured, like always, we’ll be keeping a track and will update the story as and when any new development comes to our sight.

Android Auto team is asking the affected users for more information on the matter.

NOTE: For more Android Auto related bugs/issues, news and stories, interested readers may head here.

Follow @PiunikaWeb

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.