Android Auto is one of the most popular driving assistance applications. This is available both on mobile phones and on the screen of a car that has the ability to run the app, although this is about to change.
If your vehicle was not able to open the software, you had the app for mobile devices at your disposal. Through it you could quickly access various options such as the contact list, the music player or Google Maps. But this will soon cease to be possible.
Google surrenders
For some time now, the end of Android Auto for smartphones could be seen coming, since it stopped receiving updates as if it did the software for cars, seeing its experience optimized. Now it will be the driving mode of the Google Assistant that will take the helm from our terminal.
The American company has confirmed that, with the arrival of Android 12 , the smart assistant of the device will be in charge of this type of action that we carried out. This does not mean that Android Auto already has a date set for his death, since the driving mode is not available in all countries and mobile phones. To use this function, a minimum version of Android 9 and 4 GB of RAM are required .
Can it continue to be used?
As we have said, there is no fixed date for the end of Android Auto, but it is a matter of time before it becomes inoperative. At the moment the application continues to appear in the Play Store and Google has not been very specific with the information about the application. It is likely that it can continue to be used thanks to an APK developed by a user, but it is not something that is known with certainty. However, if you still have the application, it is possible that certain types of problems have arisen.
What is certain is that for users who have a mobile phone with Android 12, the migration process to the assistant’s driving mode has already begun. So the life of Android Auto is close to over for devices that already have the new version.
For those terminals that have a version later than Android 9, including the Google Assistant is now available . For this reason it is logical to think that sooner or later the transition to the new software will begin to take place.
The case of smartphones that do not have the ability to run the Assistant’s driving mode since they have an Android version 8 or earlier is a question mark. It is possible that the Android Auto app is still present in these terminals , although there is the possibility that Google opts for a new system. We will have to wait for Google to provide more information on this situation.