Android Auto - Call command not recognised

[Mekerz]

I'm at my wits end with this one.

When I first bought the phone and set it up (used Smart Switch mainly, with some restoration from cloud services e.g. WhatsApp from Google Drive), I was having issues with Android Auto understanding the "Call x" person command. I would say "Call x"  and the Google Assistant will respond something along the lines of "It looks like you want to make a call, is that correct?" and I respond "Yes". To which Google Assistant responds "I'm sorry I don't understand the command".

I decided to reset the phone and to not use Smart Switch and thankfully, Google Assistant started to accept the call commands. As soon as I say "Call x", it straight away recognises the command and makes the call - this was Saturday. Fast forward to today, the issue has started again.

Now - interestingly, there has been no updates to either the Google App (1st October last updated), Android Auto (last updated 4th September), or Google Play Services (23rd September) in the time between it working on Saturday and today.

This is absolutely an issue that is specific to this phone and or other Samsung phones. I am not running any applications that try to intercept voice commands (tasker etc) and neither am I rooted - I simply have the device running as normal. I'm fairly certain this could have something to do with Bixby as I believe I accidentally launched it and accepted the T&Cs between Saturday and today, plus I'm sure I've read of the two assistants not working well together.

Does anyone else have this issue? I've tried rebooting the phone, trying different cables (even though these cables worked perfectly with Android Auto on the Pixel 4).

[Mekerz]

Just to update this thread: I may have narrowed it down to Bixby. I changed the power button mapping within settings to launch Bixby on double press so I could get into the app and its settings.

In the settings menu I disabled as many options as I could that were related to Bixby always listening or being active in the background (I can't remember the exact settings and don't particularly want to fire up Bixby to check).

I've tested Android Auto once and any voice requests to call someone in my contact list worked as expected. I'll test it some more on my drive home to be sure and I'll update this thread.

I know this is a community forum which usually means it's other members of the public helping each other out and you don't tend to get official representatives posting, but if Samsung software engineers are reading: please stop duplicating core Android/Google services.

Bixby does have some useful features such as Routines (which are still working for me but none of mine contain triggers or actions that involve speaking to Bixby) and others have said Bixby is good at controlling device settings such as WiFi with voice commands. However, if its going to mess up with core Google features then I personally would rather Bixby did not come pre installed on Samsung phones.

[Guppy]

it's related to the Google app. clear cache, data or uninstall updates.