You may recall that in May of this year, Google showed off a major overhaul of the Android Auto interface. The design overhaul was originally scheduled for a summer release but apparently didn’t happen. We don’t know what caused the delay, but it seems to finally be coming to an end as the new UI has started to be pushed out to public beta users.
Unfortunately, if you want to participate in the beta now it’s no longer easy to do so, as all the spots for Android Auto beta testing in the Google Play Store are already full. This means that if you are not a beta tester yet, you can’t experience the new user interface yet.
The new Android Auto interface is sleeker and cleaner, with larger UI elements and controls. google’s goal is to make it more readable and to make the controls easier to reach. The split-screen feature should also be more effective now. Here is a list of some of the major changes to Android Auto.
On the new dashboard, maps will now be closer to the driver, with improved size/accessibility.
The dashboard media card has a new look and can grow and shrink dynamically.
You can now have maps fill the entire Android Auto-area, giving the user more options to pick a layout on the larger screen.
There’s a new app dock on the bottom that makes it easy to switch between the nearest apps with just a tap.
More parts of the system have been updated with Material You and modernized UI components and layouts.
Music and media recommendations from Google Assistant are now accessible with a single swipe of the Media card on the dashboard.
Old status icons and notification center bells have been merged into an easy-to-understand, touchable area on the track that includes the number of unread messages.
