5 Android Auto Tricks That Make Your Driving More Enjoyable and Smarter

Android Auto has transformed the driving experience with advanced, practical settings, giving you smarter and more personalized control over your car's features. Android Auto is a powerful platform that brings your smartphone's capabilities to your car's display, providing easy access to navigation, music, and messages. With ...

0 Posted by: Sepehr Salari 21 Mehr 1405 at 20:07

By providing advanced and practical settings, Android Auto transforms your driving experience and provides smarter and more personalized control of your car's features.

The Android Auto system is a powerful platform that brings the capabilities of your smartphone to your car's display, providing easy access to navigation, music and messages. Despite the efficient default settings, there are many hidden features and advanced Android Auto settings that can dramatically improve the user experience. Enabling these lesser-known options helps drivers optimize the user interface according to their personal needs and enjoy a smarter and safer drive.

Enable taskbar widgets

By default, Android Auto allocates the bottom bar to display application shortcuts. This layout is convenient for quickly switching between programs, but you have to enter its own window to control each program. By enabling taskbar widgets, you can see smaller widgets instead of application shortcuts that allow you to control the main functions of the application without having to log into it fully. For example, you can keep Google Maps full-screen while having a small volume control widget at the bottom of the screen to manage music without distraction.

Open the settings program of your phone.

Tap on "Connected Devices" and then on "Android Auto". If you can't find it, search for "Android Auto" in the search field of Settings.

Go to the "Display" section.

Enable the "Taskbar Widgets" option. The next time you connect your phone to your car, a toolbar will appear at the bottom of your car's screen.

Change the position of media display and navigation

Android Auto's default settings usually place the navigation window on the driver's side and the media controls on the right side of the screen. But many drivers prefer music or podcast controls closer to the steering wheel for easier access. Fortunately, it is very easy to switch between these two parts.

Via Phone: Go to the same Android Auto page in your smartphone's Settings app. Navigate to the Advanced section and select Change Layout. In the opened window, you will see two options "Media Closer to Driver" or "Navigation Closer to Driver". Choose your favorite option.

From the car screen: Open the Settings app in Android Auto's app drawer, select Change Layout, and select the layout you want.

Create personalized Gemini shortcuts

To further customize Android Auto's user interface, you can set Gemini AI-based shortcuts. These shortcuts allow you to perform multiple functions simultaneously with one touch. For example, you can set the Daily Route shortcut to automatically activate your weather report, navigation route to work, and your favorite playlist when you touch it.

Go to the Android Auto page in your phone's Settings app.

Navigate to the Display section and select Customize Launcher.

At the top of this page, select "Add a Shortcut to the Launcher".

In the opened window, select "An Assistant Action".

In the "Assistant Command" text box, enter the command you want Jimnai to execute (such as: "take me home" or "show me the weather").

In the box below, enter "Launcher Icon Label" (the name that will be displayed for the shortcut on the Android Auto UI).

Finally, press the "Create Shortcut" button.

Manage notifications in Android Auto

Some features enabled by default may not be suitable for safe driving. While some find text previews useful, others may find them distracting and distracting while driving. Also, you may not want all messages to be displayed on the screen in front of the vehicle occupants. Android Auto offers several options for customizing how notifications are displayed.

Go to the Android Auto page in the Settings app.

Scroll to the "Messaging" section to see different options for controlling messages.

The main option is "Show Message Notifications" to enable or disable all message notifications.

Other options include Show Group Conversations to mute busy group messages, Show First Line of Message to preview messages, and Play Message Chime to mute notifications.

A newer setting called "Notifications with Assistant" also allows Android Auto to share notifications with Google so Assistant can read your messages out loud.

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Adjust the resolution scaling (Developer Settings)

Android Auto usually adapts well to car displays, but it's not always perfect. Sometimes the image can look a little cropped or stretched, which not only looks bad, but can make the controls difficult to use. Fortunately, there is a way to fix this issue through hidden developer settings.

How to enable developer settings:

Scroll down to the "Version" section.

Tap this option about 10 times until a window pops up asking if you want to access developer settings. Select the "OK" option.

Then tap on the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen and select "Developer Settings".