Several Google products are very often chock-full of features, so now and then, it's hard to notice when one of them goes missing. The ability to set reminders is one of the core functions of any smartphone experience, and Google Calendar does a pretty good job at that. However, it appears that several users have stopped receiving notifications that remind them about the departure for a certain appointment, and nobody knows why.
According to the Google product forums, the departure time notifications have mysteriously vanished for many people. When you make an appointment using Google Calendar (a location has to be specified for this to work), the Google app sends you a notification telling you that it's time to leave. It uses Maps data to determine traffic and gives you a good approximation of a good time to leave, depending on conditions.
The problem first appeared in November, according to the forums
Reports of the bug first appeared in November of last year, and the thread has only been growing for months, as more users show up to say they too have the problem. Even Google support is baffled and has offered little in the way of a solution. Furthermore, troubleshooting is complicated by Google's constantly changing Google app and the tests that come with it. One of the people who commented on the post suggested the following workaround:
So what you need to do is visit Google Maps on your phone, visit the Google maps page in 'desktop view's mode (you might need to try this a few times because it'll keep sending you to your app) but once you've got onto the web page, look on the left for notifications, then turn on the notification for 'time to leave'... If you include a location on a calender entry you'll get a notification on your phone from Chrome and not Google maps. But hey, at least it works."
Some users went as far as saying that the feature never worked for them, while others have observed it to stop working only recently. It's hard to say how widespread this problem is, and it seemed to be working fine for me, at least until about three days ago. Google has remained largely silent about the issue and we'll let you know once we get an update.
News Source: Android Police
