It’s been a rough ride for Google Maps users this week, with music controls suddenly disappearing from the navigation UI over the weekend. Where the app would normally let you play, pause, and skip tracks in your favorite streaming music app, media controls were simply absent, with the associated settings even disappearing.
At first, many feared that this useful feature had found its way to the Google graveyard, but then the company clarified that the behavior was simply a bug and that it was “actively working to fix an issue that [was] affecting media playback controls on Google Maps.”
Now, we can confirm that the fix is in.
Media playback controls make their return, but there may still be some kinks to iron out
Android Police Operations Manager, Andrew Martonik, spotted the controls returning to Google Maps on Thursday. We have now confirmed the revival on multiple devices running Google Maps versions 25.28.04 and 25.30.00. However, the fix is likely being issued as a server-side update, as these were the same versions affected by the bug earlier in the week.
It’s worth noting that Google might still have some kinks to iron out. In our testing, the media controls do not appear on the collapsed card while in navigation mode — instead, you have to tap or swipe up on the card at the bottom of the screen to expand it, and only then will you be able to tap the previous, next, or play/pause controls.
Elsewhere in the app, the settings for this feature have also returned. You’ll find them both where they had previously resided, under Settings → Navigation → Show media playback controls and Settings → Navigation → Default media app.
During this outage on Android, the iOS version of Google Maps continued to function as usual, allowing iPhone users to control media playback from the navigation UI. With the Android app now back up to snuff, users in Google’s own ecosystem no longer need to feel like they’ve been left out in the cold.
