A whole host of new functionality is coming to Android Auto, the smartphone mirroring system available in almost all new cars sold today.
When Apple launched CarPlay in 2014, and Google released Android Auto in 2015, both tech giants restricted mirroring functionality primarily to navigation, audio playback, and basic messaging for safety reasons.
At its I/O, Google’s annual developer conference, the search giant confirmed video playback and web browsing functionality are “coming soon” to Android Auto. Naturally, due to safety concerns, you’ll need to be parked in order access these two features.
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Video playback will only work on supported apps and “compatible cars”. The user’s phone also needs to be running Android 16, which is currently in beta and will start becoming available on from June 3.
In typical Android fashion, Google’s devices will have the new version of the operating system (OS) first, with other smartphone manufacturers typically taking a month to a year to roll the latest version to their phones.
Game play support is now available for Android Auto beta testers. It’s unclear when game, video and web browsing will all become available to the general public.
Vehicles with infotainment systems that run the Android Automotive OS – often branded as Google Built-in – already have access to video playback, with audio-only playback while driving on the coming soon list. Web browsing is currently in the beta test phase for cars with Android Automotive.
Google Gemini, the voice activated AI search assistant, is also heading to Android Auto and Android Automotive in the “coming months”. It will replace Google Assistant, and promises to have more natural voice interaction, the ability to pull and infer more information from other sources, including your email, calendar and apps like Spotify.
In the meantime, Google has added weather to the list of approved application types for Android Auto. If you have any weather apps on your Android phone, expect to see them appear in your Android Auto app drawer as developers add support for the smartphone mirroring system.