Google is killing Android Auto for phone screens with the latest release of Android. Now, this may sound odd or wrong, the reality is that Google isn't killing its phone beaming platform for car infotainment systems but instead, it is killing a special Android launcher for phone screens that it had launched in 2016. At the time, Google had released a custom launcher which was would project an optimised user interface for the phone screen with limited apps and big target touchpoints so that it would be easy for the user to operate while driving. Android launchers are software-based user interface layers that change the look and feel of an Android phone.
Also Read: 5 new features coming to cars powered by Android in 2021
In 2019, it had announced its fully voice based successor which also is a safer experience as the user can operate it using just speech using Google's prodigious natural language processing capabilities. It called it Google Assistant driving mode.
Even this year at Google IO with the launch of Android 12, there are many updates to Android Auto
"Google Assistant driving mode is our next evolution of the mobile driving experience. For the people who use Android Auto in supported vehicles, that experience isn't going away. For those who use the on phone experience (Android Auto mobile app), they will be transitioned to Google Assistant driving mode. Starting with Android 12, Google Assistant driving mode will be the built-in mobile driving experience. We have no further details to share at this time," said Google in a statement.
Google first rolled out the update in October 2020 in the US, but most users outside the US only got to experience it in April when a wider deployment of the feature happened. Google will kill the older feature once the Android 12 roll out is complete, but chances are for many folks it will work for a long time as Android software updates are notoriously fragmented and often older phones either never get the latest release of Android especially if they are older than two years or get them very late. Of course, one can expect the feature to evaporate on newer phones or not show up in the first place.
