A pretty big one Part of staying safe while driving is keeping your eyes on the road. When you need to answer a phone call, change a playlist, or change a destination you’re navigating to, it’s not always easy. We should all pull over when we need to do these things (or have a passenger do them for us), but that doesn’t always happen.
Using your voice to interact with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, you can get directions, look up information, and control media playback without taking your hands off the wheel or your eyes off what’s ahead. Here’s how to do it when you connect to Android Auto or Apple CarPlay in your car.
Talk to Android Auto
There are a few ways to get Android Auto to listen to you. One is to tap the microphone icon that appears at the side of the interface, next to the list of recently used apps. Another is to press the voice command button on your car’s steering wheel, if it has one. It looks different in some cars, but it usually shows an illustration of a person’s face in profile, mouth open, with sound waves coming from their mouth. (Check your car’s documentation if you’re not sure.)
If you want to go completely hands-free and use the “Hey Google” prompt for Android Auto to listen in, you’ll need to make sure voice prompts are enabled on your phone. From Settings, select Connected Devices > Connection Options (Google Pixel phones) or just Devices already connected (Samsung Galaxy phone), then Android Auto.
Select Detect ‘Hey Google’ and you’ll see two toggle switches—so you can enable hands-free voice activation on your phone all the time or only when you’re driving. Note that if you haven’t already, enabling this feature will require you to record a few voice samples so your phone knows how to recognize you when you’re talking and making requests.
Talk to Apple CarPlay
Similar to Android Auto, there may be a voice command button on your car’s steering wheel that you can press before talking to Siri on Apple CarPlay. This depends on the make, model, and age of your car, so if the voice command button isn’t clearly visible, you may have to check your manual to find it. (Look for the button with a picture of a person speaking.)
