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Google launched Android Auto in 2014 to allow smartphones to interface with car radios. When your phone is connected to a compatible car stereo, it projects a car-optimized launcher with quick access to certain multimedia and navigation apps suitable for driving. At the end of 2016, Google launched a new way to use Android Auto: on phone screens. The Android Auto app on smartphones featured large icons, quick access to voice assistant, large maps for notifications, and integration with Google Maps, dialer, and some media apps, but it has since been replaced by a new experience being part of Google. Assistant. Now Google is preparing to remove Android Auto from phone screens.
In 2019, Google announced a new driving mode integrated with Google Assistant. At the same time, the company initially announced that it would be phasing out Android Auto for phone screens, but it backed down a bit and launched a dedicated app that’s just a shortcut to the old experience in the Android Auto app. , now preinstalled on all devices running Android. 10 and more. This app is aptly called “Android Auto for Phone Screens”, and after launching it today, some users have noticed that the phone screen experience is completely ignored and a review says that Android Auto is now only available for car screens.
So far, we’ve only seen reports that this advisory is appearing on Pixel phones running Android 12, which suggests that the depreciation could be OS specific. However, the app is marked as “incompatible” on Google Play with Pixel phones we own, which means we were only able to launch the “Android Auto for phone screens” app by loading or having already installed it. On my Pixel 3 XL running Android 12 I get the above message, while Rich’s Pixel 5 running beta 4 does not display the message after loading it. It is possible that the obsolescence warning is slowly rolling out to users, as we haven’t seen many reports online about it yet. The Google support page mentioning the Android Auto app for phone screens has also not been updated to reflect the depreciation notice.
The replacement for this feature, the Google Assistant Riding Mode, was first rolled out to users in October of last year. In April, the functionality was extended to users outside of the United States. Most users should have access to the feature right from the start of Google Maps navigation.
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