Google first announced the Google Assistant Driving Mode all the way back at Google I/O 2019. After over a year, the feature finally started rolling out to some users earlier this month. However, the mode was rolled out in a partially finished state, and a couple of its features were not working as intended at the time. Now, a teardown of the latest version of Google Maps (v 10.53.1) has revealed new strings, which suggest that Google is still polishing the feature for a wider release.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

For the unaware, the Google Assistant Driving Mode is supposed to replace the Android Auto app on smartphones. It brings with it a new navigation UI with large, easy to access buttons and improved voice controls.

In our previous coverage, we shared a few screenshots of the new UI. And now, our Editor-in-Chief Mishaal Rahman has managed to extract screenshots of the onboarding screens for the Google Assistant Driving Mode from the latest version of Google Maps. New strings found in the latest version of Google Maps also mention the opt-in dialog seen in the screenshot above.

        <string name="NAVIGATION_ASSISTANT_DRIVING_MODE_OPT_IN_DIALOG_LEARN_MORE">Learn more</string>
<string name="NAVIGATION_ASSISTANT_DRIVING_MODE_OPT_IN_DIALOG_OPT_IN">Try it out</string>
<string name="NAVIGATION_ASSISTANT_DRIVING_MODE_OPT_IN_DIALOG_OPT_OUT">Not now</string>
<string name="NAVIGATION_ASSISTANT_DRIVING_MODE_OPT_IN_DIALOG_TEXT">Improved voice control and easy-to-tap buttons help you focus on the road.</string>
<string name="NAVIGATION_ASSISTANT_DRIVING_MODE_OPT_IN_DIALOG_TITLE">Be the first to use Assistant driving mode in Maps</string>

Along with the opt-in dialog for the Google Assistant Driving Mode, the teardown has unearthed new strings which suggest that Google is working on adding a language changer in Google Maps on Android. While you can currently change the voice guidance language in Google Maps on Android, the app doesn't include a feature to change the language of the app interface.

Since such a feature already exists in the web version of Google Maps, it makes sense for the company to bring it to Android users. New strings related to this upcoming feature suggest that the language changer will allow users to change the interface language.

        <string name="APP_LANGUAGE_SETTINGS_CONFIRMATION_PROMPT">Maps will restart to change your app language</string>
<string name="APP_LANGUAGE_SETTINGS_CONFIRMATION_TITLE">%1$s to %2$s</string>
<string name="APP_LANGUAGE_SETTINGS_DOWNLOAD_FAILED_DIALOG_LEARN_MORE_LINK">Learn more</string>
<string name="APP_LANGUAGE_SETTINGS_DOWNLOAD_FAILED_DIALOG_TEXT">Maps will keep trying to change your language. Check again later.</string>
<string name="APP_LANGUAGE_SETTINGS_DOWNLOAD_FAILED_DIALOG_TITLE">"Can't change your language right now"</string>
<string name="APP_LANGUAGE_SETTINGS_PAGE_CATEGORY_ALL">All</string>
<string name="APP_LANGUAGE_SETTINGS_PAGE_CATEGORY_SUGGESTED">Suggested</string>
<string name="APP_LANGUAGE_SETTINGS_PAGE_TITLE">App language</string>
<string name="APP_LANGUAGE_SETTINGS_PROGRESS_SPINNER_TEXT">Changing Language&acirc;&euro;&brvbar;</string>
<string name="APP_LANGUAGE_SETTINGS_TITLE">App language</string>

The strings highlight that users will have to restart the app to apply the new language settings, along with a couple of error messages that will pop up if the language change is unsuccessful. Furthermore, the strings reveal that the language changer will also offer language suggestions, likely based on the global settings.

It's worth noting that both the opt-in dialog for the Google Assistant Driving Mode and the language changer are not live in the current version of Google Maps. As of now, we have no information from Google regarding a release timeline. We will update this post as soon as these features make their way to the stable channel.


Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.