Android Auto is at its best when it’s purring along in the background while you concentrate on getting where you need to go. However, sometimes, you do need to give it some attention, whether it’s to swap music apps, reply to a message, or alter your driving directions. And that’s when it’s crucial Android Auto performs at a high standard.
An APK teardown from Android Authority has revealed what Google is planning for future versions of Android Auto, and there’s a big usability boost on the way that will make using Android Auto much easier.
More columns means quicker navigation
Get where you want even faster
It should go without saying that you shouldn’t be using Android Auto while you’re driving, so some elements of navigational smoothness can be largely ignored. However, if you’ve just pulled over to quickly change some settings or select a new audiobook to listen to, then the last thing you want is to be stuck digging through menus forever. That seems to be why Google is looking to expand the number of columns available on your Android Auto app drawer.
At the moment, Android Auto will display around four or five columns in the app drawer. The exact number will depend on the size of your car’s display, but even five columns really won’t seem like much on the largest car displays. Google clearly agrees, as breakdowns of the latest Android Auto release have discovered secret settings for increasing the number of app drawer columns.
Android Authority did not disclose how they were able to enable this setting, but when turned on, the number of apps visible in the app drawer was able to expand up to a maximum of seven columns — drastically increasing the number of apps in view. It’s not clear whether seven is the ultimate limit, or whether larger screens would be capable of more. Seven was the most Android Authority was capable of getting though, which means we expect the limit to be somewhere around there.
It’s a big change and definitely for the better. Car displays can be quite large, so it makes sense to take advantage of that. Having only a few apps on screen makes sense if you expect a driver to be poking at it — there’s a lower chance of hitting something by mistake — but ultimately, this isn’t something you should be doing while driving anyway. So it makes sense to take advantage of the larger screen and display more apps in the drawer.
This change is definitely a good thing, but it’s important to ask whether this is actually what people want from Android Auto. Out of all the complaints aimed at Android Auto, it’s rare to see the app drawer size being mentioned. Consistency of speed limits, better notifications, and heck, even the weather seem to be more popular gripes. Granted, it probably didn’t take much effort for Google to add this, but hopefully Google is working on fixing some of the more common Android Auto problems.
