Search giant announces substantial makeover for Android Auto

May 7, 2019 11:57 GMT  ·  By

Google has recently announced a major update for Android Auto, its in-car infotainment platform that provides users with the power of Android behind the wheel.

With a compatible car, Android Auto offers all the tools that drivers would basically need, including easy access to multimedia apps, phone controls, and navigation.

Everything’s powered by Android phones, which according to third-party statistics currently account for nearly 80 percent of all mobile devices out there.

In theory, everything sounds magical, but in practice, Android Auto leaves a lot to be desired. But let’s start off by recapping the improvements that Google is bringing to the app.

First and foremost, Google is redesigning Android Auto with a new navigation bar that displays turn-by-turn directions for navigation and phone and music controls. Additionally, there’s a new notification center for messages, calls, and things like that, as well as a dark theme that’s supposed to be easier on the eye especially during the night.

Google has also worked on more subtle refinements, like colorful accents and tweaked fonts, but also on optimizing Android Auto for wider screens. And last but not least, Android Auto is now supposed to provide a more seamless experience by simply continuing playing media and navigation when starting the car.

The new Android Auto experience coming this summer

This makeover is without a doubt welcome, but as long-time Android Auto users certainly know, these aren’t necessarily the areas that Google had to focus on.

For example, one of the biggest issues that I had with Android Auto was its lack of consistency. Using Android Auto on a daily basis was more of a Russian roulette. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, so everything depended on how lucky you were every day.

The updates that Google released for Android Auto have always been an experience that users would have rather avoided. Most updates broke down stuff, and I experienced this on my own. Several Android Auto updates simply broke down navigation apps, like Waze, while others caused my phone to no longer be detected by my car’s head unit.

This isn’t something that happened occasionally, but rather frequently, and long-time Android Auto users certainly know this.

Without a doubt, new features like the ones mentioned above will be well received, but only if Google gets them right. For example, the dark theme must come with an option to allow users to turn it off because not everyone is a big fan of this visual style. The behavior to resume playing music and navigation when starting the car should also include a toggle to be turned off because of the obvious reasons.

The new Android Auto experience coming this summer

But more important is that Google doesn’t just ship new features, but also focuses more on the under-the-hood code in Android Auto.

Many users are skeptical that this update would even happen in the first place. And it’s all for a good reason, as some of the updates that Google previously announced never made their way to their devices.

Google claims this Android Auto makeover would go live later this summer, but as with everything that’s still in the development stage, I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually takes more time to launch.

But at this point, I just hope Google spends more time fixing bugs on Android Auto because everyone knows there are way too many of them right now. Polishing the experience with Android Auto has never been a priority for the company, and I think this is the time to completely change this.

I think Google should consider themselves lucky that Apple doesn’t necessary put a lot of effort into getting CarPlay right because given the limited number of alternatives, there’s not much to do if Android Auto isn’t working exactly as expected.

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The new Android Auto experience coming this summer
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