Long story short... Google's unnamed voice-search thingamajig keeps getting worse and worse, along with Maps.
"Okay Google"
Search thingy pops up, okay
"Navigate to X"
It correctly identifies all the words, including the local and fairly obscure business name [X].
... And brings me to a list of Google search results for "navigate to [X]"
Used to be that this would bring up the Navigate app and start navigating ASAP
Then they merged Maps and Navigate, shitted both up a bit, and made it pause for like 10 seconds on a list of possible matches. Grr, fine, but not what I want when I'm driving. Still worked, just delayed.
Now it's just literally a google search. I hit the home button and try again.
"Okay Google"
"Open Navigate"
Silly me, I forgot that Navigate no longer exists. It does another Google search for "open navigate", which includes a banner of apps... Maps, Navigation Shortcut, and "Waze Social GPS Maps&..."
Fine, I click on the Maps one...
It brings me to the STORE PAGE even though I have Maps installed already, obviously.
Instead of scrounging for the "Open" button, I hit home again. Kinda distracted.
At this point maybe I'm misremembering, because I thought I tried:
"Okay Google" "Open Maps"
And I coulda sworn it brought me to another Google result where the Maps app's store page was the first option, again. Argh!
Trying it now though, that does open up the Maps app. So that's good I guess... Though then you have to press the tiny microphone icon and speak the actual destination.
This is not something I wanted to deal with last week in heavy traffic!! Hence why I basically couldn't more than glance at the screen, and ended up just navigating by memory. Which made me late.
It's mind-boggling because "Navigate home" or "Navigate to X" worked just a couple weeks ago. And now they just don't!!
Doe anyone know what the new proper words are? Ugh.
It also blinks constantly because I don't care to stay completely updated on my gmail account, and I'd rather have it constantly blink than have to open it up and swipe away the gmail notification every half hour or so.
And pressing the stupid home button turns on the screen, so it's constantly getting turned on in my pocket unless I place it just right.
Also I hate phone calls but that's not really its fault.
Edit: Well to be fair, turning off Gmail notifications turned out to be easy.