Tag: Google Now

Over the weekend, many people were impacted by what appears to be a server-side experiment with Google Now.  The issue left those who use the Google Now Launcher, the Pixel launcher or the Google app on their phone useless for personalized information.  The cards would not display save one that simply stated “Failed to load cards”.  I was met with this issue on all three of my main devices:  Google Pixel XL, Nexus 9 and Huawei P10.

Fortunately there is what seems to be a rather quick and easy fix to this issue:  Clear the data on the Google app on your devices.  I did this on all three of my devices mentioned above and afterwards, the Google Now cards displayed as expected.  If you know how to clear data in an app, try the trick and let me know if it also works for you.  If you don’t know how to do this, keep reading and I’ll walk you through the steps.

One of the big benefits of Google Now is getting travel time information to your next appointment.  It is really handing in planning your journey time as it takes into account things like travel time itself but also things like traffic on along your route thanks to its Google Maps integration.  That travel time can be adjusted depending on your mode of transportation:  Car, bike, bus or public transit or walking and, in some place, car sharing services like Uber.

There is another small but important feature that this service in Now offers and that is the ability to adjust your arrival time regardless of your transportation mode.  I, for example, generally like to be at a meeting place about 5 minutes before the actual start time of the meeting.  Old habits die hard, what can I say?  Within the travel time information in Google Now, you can adjust when you want to arrive at your destination which, in turn, adjust the time in which you need to leave.  In this How To, I’ll show you how to tweak this little feature so you can show up at the time you want to show up for your next appointment.