The whole point ofAndroid Autois to enhance your driving experience without the limitations of a phone mount, or the expense of buying a new car with preloaded tech like (the confusingly named)Android Automotive. It’s not quite as polished asApple CarPlay, though, so it’s not uncommon for people to run into issues that make it a little more troublesome than it should be. Hopefully, the gap will continue to narrow in coming years.
In the meantime, you can solve some of Android Auto’s current issues with a few settings tweaks. I’d strongly recommend trying some or all of these before you hit the road – there’s no sense driving with a suboptimal experience, especially if you’ve spent upwards of $1,000 on a new flagship phone from Google or Samsung.
Android Auto
Does anyone actually want Apple’s next-gen CarPlay? Not really
You’d think a radically different car interface would have a broader appeal.
1Enable developer settings
Unlock Android Auto’s full potential
You can’t fully improve Android Auto’s usability without enabling developer settings. Depending on your version of Android, even some seemingly simple things may be behind this barrier, treated as if they were a dangerous experiment. Don’t worry – as long as you understand the options you’re toggling, everything should keep running fine.
On most Android phones, the steps look like this:
To access developer settings at any time, open Android Auto again and tap thetriple-dot menu(or a visual equivalent) in the top-right corner.
Keep in mind that this entire process could change between different versions of Android.
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2Force Day or Night Modes
Save your eyesight
There’s a good chance your phone is set to flipAndroid Autofrom Day to Night Mode and back automatically, but that’s not ideal for everyone. Some people might find Day Mode blinding at any hour, for instance, or simply prefer Night Mode’s aesthetic. You can change how maps appear pretty easily:
If you’ve got developer settings on, you can alter the entire Android Auto interface:
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3Make music and podcasts resume automatically
Save yourself trouble during frequent stops
One of the things I enjoy about CarPlay is that it resumes media playback whenever you start your car – unless it’s been a while since an associated app was running. Occasionally, I’ll start a playlist or podcast shortly before I get in the driver’s seat just to exploit this.
You can get a similar experience with Android Auto if you ensure the right setting is active:
This could potentially be annoying, of course – if you’re leaving the gym with your spouse, you might not want to let them know that you lift weights to the Backstreet Boys.
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4Launch Android Auto without unlocking your phone
Why isn’t this the default?
I would’ve put this higher on my list, except that it’s dead easy – follow the steps from the last section, but flip theStart Android Auto while lockedtoggle instead. Voilà, no more fingerprint, passcode, or facial recognition needed.
There’s no real catch to this, either, unless you’re concerned about someone launching Android Auto on your phone when you’re not there.
There’s no sense driving with a suboptimal experience, especially if you’ve spent upwards of $1,000 on a new flagship phone from Google or Samsung.
5Fix the sorting of your apps
Move unused apps to the back
Normally, Android Auto pushes the apps you use most to the front of the homescreen, but if that’s not your bag, there are alternate sorting options available. You can also choose which apps appear at all, say if you don’t particularly care about Discord chats when you’re driving.
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6Hide unwanted messaging notifications
Catch up when you’re safe and sound
Regular chat notifications aren’t a big deal when you’re at home or work, but when Android Auto is running, they can potentially interfere with your driving. You’ve got a few toggles available within the Android Auto settings on your phone:
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