New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Original story (published on May 17, 2022) follows:
Owned by Google, Waze is a GPS-based app that offers turn-by-turn navigation. It was originally designed by Waze Mobile and acquired by Google in 2013 for $1.15 billion.
As of August last year, the app has more than 140 million active users spread across 185 countries.
But in the last few months, users have faced issues such as the broken Waze speed alert audio tone warning and Waze Carplay getting stuck in light mode despite enabling dark theme.
While Waze developers fixed the aforementioned issues, users are now saying the voice assistant — Kate — keeps changing between her new and old voice (1,2,3,4,5).
Many say the problem is distracting them while driving with some getting confused at times since Kate is giving them directions in different voices at the same time.
The issue seems to have surfaced in the last few weeks. Below are some reports from Waze users complaining about Kate changing her voice in between sentences.
Fortunately, Waze developers have acknowledged the matter and said they are already working on a fix. However, there is no ETA for when the patch will be out.
We hope the developers fix the problem in an upcoming update. If and when they do, we will be updating this space to reflect the same so make sure you stay tuned to PiunikaWeb.
Update 1 (November 25, 2022)
10:56 am (IST): Fresh user reports (1, 2, 3) suggest that the issue where Kate keeps switching between old & new voice has resurfaced again.
Luckily, Waze support has acknowledged the problem and said that they are working on a fix.
Update 2 (November 28, 2022)
06:30 pm (IST): A product expert on the Google support page has confirmed that the Waze voice assistant switching voice is a known bug. However, they haven’t shared any ETA for a fix.
Update 3 (November 29, 2022)
06:56 pm (IST): A Redditor has suggested a solution that you can try until this issue gets resolved.
Update 4 (November 30, 2022)
06:26 pm (IST): Earlier it seemed that the issue is limited to the ‘Kate’ voice assistant. However, fresh reports suggest that the problem occurs even when users select ‘Jane’ (1,2).
Update 5 (December 05, 2022)
03:25 pm (IST): To help resolve the bug faster, the Waze team is asking affected users to share the debug log.
The process for submit debug logs is as follows:
To exit Debug Mode:
Update 6 (December 07, 2022)
06:05 pm (IST): Waze support is presently advising users to update their phones and reboot them as a potential troubleshooting procedure:
Update 7 (December 09, 2022)
06:23 pm (IST): Users have shared a positive response (1, 2, 3) for the Santa voice and they aren’t complaining about it changing mid-way. So, using it could be a temporary workaround.
Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated Apps Section so be sure to follow them as well.
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