Millions use Android Auto in some form for car-related activities, including navigation and music playback. Any update to either of these experiences is noteworthy, given that they don’t change too often. The Android Auto team is now working on tweaking the platform’s music/audio player experience with an updated progress bar. But it’s not all good news.
Code sleuths at Android Authority dug into version 15.9.6551 of Android Auto to activate a wavy progress bar for music apps like Spotify and YouTube Music. We’ve already seen this progress bar across Android as part of Google’s Material 3 Expressive design language. The wavy progress bar will be visible across all screens, including in its minimized form during navigation.
Considering Google’s efforts to maintain consistency across Android Auto and its mobile platform, this design update was along expected lines. If anything, it’s a little surprising that it took the Android Auto team this long to implement this somewhat basic visual element. Now for the not-so-good news.
Why are the controls rearranged?
Current vs Upcoming
Using Android Auto regularly means you have built up muscle memory for certain tasks, such as skipping or pausing tracks. But with this upcoming redesign, the media player has moved the Pause/Play button to the left, the Previous button to the middle, and the Skip/Next button to the right.
While it’s natural to assume this is an error, a similar rearrangement of the audio controls was spotted in May this year. While it’s been months since we heard about this reorganization, perhaps Google is finally ready to roll it out with the upcoming Android Auto update. If that is the case, users will understandably be frustrated, at least until they get used to the new layout.
Current vs Upcoming
As frequent Android Auto users will tell you, the lack of visual elements isn’t among the platform’s biggest issues. Nevertheless, the addition of the updated progress bar will be welcomed by the users, though opinions will be split on the relocated Pause/Play button in the music player.
Since the M3 Expressive progress bar (and the rearranged controls) had to be manually activated, it’s unclear when it will be officially rolled out to Android Auto users.
As the year draws to a close, Android Auto can reflect on the upgrades that arrived in 2025. Prominent among them is support for Gemini, which will fully replace Google Assistant. However, recent reporting indicates that the migration timeline may be delayed, at least for some Google products.
