Prophecy is a death story. The Mountain View Giant has been clearing the beautiful story of Android Auto for over a year now, a smartphone-based standard that allows green robots to use mobile devices in their cars.
A year ago, in fact, Mountain View Giant announced the replacement of Android Auto Google Assistant. The app was removed to Android 12 in early August, but it was still possible to use Android Auto (including Android 10 and 11). Not too far.
Someone still uses it, even if Google slowly removes it. He also said that there is no alternative to the application. One can always use the basic Android experience and run apps on their smartphone, but without an optimized interface for driving, it feels like a downgrade that obviously can’t happen on such a popular mobile platform.
“If your car is compatible with Android Auto, you can still connect directly to the display”
Android Auto for smartphones stopped working completely this week, even removing the Play Store list. In fact, users who start the app are now redirected to the Android Auto Settings page where nothing can be done.
Google has Plan B: just switch to driving mode and get a car-optimized experience on their mobile device, which integrates with Google Assistant. “Driving Mode” was introduced last year specifically to play the role of Android Auto’s alternative for phones, but so far the response has been nothing short of disappointing.
“If you’re using the Android Auto app on your phone’s screen, you’ll need to switch to Google Assistant Driving Mode, a new integrated driving experience“Google’s official status is the value of a death certificate:”If your car is compatible with Android Auto, you can still connect directly to the display”
The Google Assistant-based driving mode is designed with Google Maps in mind, and the required feature package is still there, so you can easily make calls and send and receive messages, a lack of support for other navigation apps is a serious issue. Difficulty.
The app is, to say the least, glitchy, not to mention that it’s not available on all devices and all regions. According to Google, driving mode is only available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. It requires at least Android 9 and can only work on 4GB RAM and many more devices. Needless to say, it integrates support for voice commands, obviously powered by Google Assistant, But you can only call and answer, send and read messages, and listen to music. For navigation, simple Google Maps commands can be used to interact with the app and set a new destination.
