After months of delay, Google announced the new Android Auto last week with the long-awaited redesign of Coolwalk and other new features that you can find shortly (in the deployment phase since Thursday January 5, but available in beta phase) on Connect your phone to the car screen. What’s the best and worst of the new Android Auto?
The best of the new Android Auto
Besides the fact that the redesign with Coolwalk is more aesthetically pleasing, practically most useful are multiple windows. This function allows us to view up to three applications at the same time, which means that you can use navigation, communication and entertainment applications at the same time, the three main pillars of Android Auto. So you can follow Waze instructions, see a WhatsApp message and the song you’re listening to on Spotify.
We said up to three apps, but if you choose to see two, you can do that too. If at some point you need to see a certain one in full screen, for example for a Waze indication, you can click on it to do so. And to return to the mosaic once again? Tap on the split screen icon that you will find in the lower left corner
The icing on the cake is that this mosaic adapts to the shape and diagonal of your screensomething that those with a large panel (for the comfort it offers) and the most compact will appreciate, since you will not lose information (even if you see it smaller).
The worst of the new Android Auto
The worst thing about the new Android Auto is that some features only reach (for the moment) those who have mobiles of certain brands. If it were unimportant or aesthetic functions, it would be a lesser evil, but we are talking about at least two features the most useful.
Isa the feeling of fragmentation is common in AndroidFor example, in the case of updates, which arrive earlier in some models or brands than in others (or may not arrive), but which had not been felt in Android Auto and which, fortunately, do not are not common.
And it is that some features only reach (for the moment) those who have mobiles of certain brands. If it were unimportant or aesthetic functions, it would be a lesser evil, but we are talking about at least two features the most useful.
So you can soon make WhatsApp calls via Android Auto, as long as you have a Google Pixel or a Samsung phone. As expected, this function will reach other brands, but the wait will be longer. Here, it’s more about the application than the system, but who pays is the users.
The following function concerns safety: if your car is compatible (at the moment only certain BMW models), you will be able to share your digital car key so that your family and friends can access the car.
This feature is already present on the Google Pixel and the iPhone, it will soon arrive on the Samsung Galaxy and on the Xiaomi at the end of the year but, what about other brands? I have a OnePlus 9 and I won’t be able to enjoy any of them, yet. Android-Auto according to does not offer a vehicle lock/unlock system, this scale of implementations over time is tied to Google Wallet.
The normal thing is that in Android Auto is that there is no fragmentation and it reaches everyone equally. In this sense, it is not about the system as such, but about application criteria or partnerships between brands of software and hardware manufacturers, but the consequence is that there will be users who will have more hard to take advantage of all the new features of Android Auto.
