Wireless Android Auto expands to Japan, the last country that didn’t have it

Ben Schoon | Feb 10 2023 - 5:54 pm PT

Android Auto is already a convenient way to use your smartphone’s most important features while behind the wheel, but wireless support just makes it even better. Years later, wireless Android Auto is finally making its way to the last country it wasn’t supported in – Japan.

In 2020, Google launched a huge expansion to wireless Android Auto that brought the functionality to nearly every country that supported the wired version. Then, in 2021, Google launched the platform across even more countries, all of which supported wireless functionality immediately.

For a while, there were only two countries that didn’t have access to wireless Android Auto. Russia was among the two, but it ended up being granted support in late 2020. The last country on the list was Japan, which has lacked the wireless form of Android Auto. But that seems to have changed today.

Google hasn’t made any official announcement, but in an update to a support page, the company has removed the qualifier that noted the lack of wireless support in Japan and now lists the country as having full support for Android Auto in either form. The apparent reason why wireless Android Auto wasn’t supported in the country was due to a law that prohibited the use of the Wi-Fi 5.2GHz band outdoors, including in cars, but that law was revised in late 2022 to remove that restriction.

It’s unclear if there are any requirements to wireless support, though, but it may be tied to either an app update or a server-side change. But, even with that in mind, cars sold in Japan likely lack the needed hardware or would need updates of their own to support wireless Android Auto. Still, it’s great to finally have the feature unlocked.

With this change, wireless Android Auto is now supported in every country that supports the wired version. There are still quite a few regions where Android Auto isn’t supported anywhere, though, so that’s likely next on Google’s list to expand to.