It’s now official, the Android Auto app for smartphones will soon be gone. A message announcing the upcoming end of services is now displayed to users. Google wants to migrate the few remaining survivors to its Assistant, which supports similar functionality.
We could see the thing happened for miles, it’s now official. Since this week, many users report seeing a notification in their Android Auto application. This is quite straightforward: “Android Auto for phone will stop working soon”. If it is displayed in large on the user’s screen, it does not offer more details. It is therefore impossible at the present time on what date the final sentence will be pronounced.
Nevertheless, Google doesn’t really take users by surprise. The Mountain View company has already been preventing users from downloading the application on Android 12 for several months. Even if we managed to install it on an older smartphone, it was very complicated to make it work properly. We suspected then that this did not bode well for the latter.
Google announces the final end of Android Auto on smartphones
But as of last summer, the app is still running on Android 11 and below. So it looks like that era is coming to an end. From now on, for the users concerned and soon for the whole community, the message mentioned above appears at each start, even if one tries to get rid of it using a swipe. We can’t yet predict when this will stop working, but considering that the notification has been there for about a week, we expect Google to make an announcement shortly.
Moreover, the manufacturer was not content to warn its users in a hurry in this way. The latter published a press release confirming the end of Android Auto support on smartphones. The statement is intended to be rather reassuring, since Google claims that “the experience will not completely disappear. » The company recalls that the I/O conference was an opportunity to unveil a “Major interface improvement”. But this obviously concerns the version for cars.
Related: Android Auto Finally Gets Touchscreen Quick Responses
Towards a transition from Android Auto to the Google Assistant and its driving mode?
“For those using the phone experience (Android Auto mobile app), they will switch to the Google Assistant driving mode which is our next evolution of the mobile driving experience. We have no further details to share at this time.”, concludes the firm. We will therefore have to be patient to find out more about the future of Google’s driving assistant. For now, no direct replacement is expected, unless you buy a brand new vehicle directly equipped with Android Auto.
Despite everything, we can be optimistic for everyone else. The Google Assistant and its driving mode have arrived on smartphones with Android 12 and greatly optimize the use of Maps and the general functionalities of the application during car journeys, such as media management. Referring to the press release, we can therefore expect a new focus on this solution, which could provide other possibilities in the near future.
Still, this decision will not please everyone, if only for the reasons mentioned above. “I can’t even tell you how angry it made me to see that my phone was completely unusable the whole trip. exclaims a member of the Android Auto subreddit. “I don’t understand why they decided to make this change. It’s really mind-boggling because AA worked perfectly for its purpose.
Source : Reddit