Google is looking into broken music apps in Android Auto following Android 14 update

Ben Schoon | Nov 14 2023 - 5:24 am PT

The update to Android 14 is becoming available to more and more smartphones as of late, but for Android Auto users, the update has broken some music apps.

The ability to stream music from your phone with app controls is one of the biggest reasons to use Android Auto, which is why this bug is particularly frustrating. Affected users report that, after updating to Android 14, their music apps have just randomly gone silent on Android Auto. The issue seems to be separate from specific apps, with users reporting the problem across Spotify, YouTube Music, and others, and reports have come from a variety of vehicle makes and models as well.

For those affected, it’s reported that the music apps act as if music is playing, but no sound comes out of the speakers. We’ve spotted reports across Google’s forums as well as on Reddit. It’s primarily affecting Pixel phones right now, as those are the devices that currently have Android 14 updates widely available.

Workarounds that some users have mentioned include restarting the song, or just restarting the whole connection, as this issue doesn’t seem to consistently knock out audio.

While the issue doesn’t seem to be massively widespread, it’s gotten enough attention to where Google has added it to a known issues list, and is asking for more bug reports to investigate it further. Hopefully, though, Google will be able to identify a fix soon as Android 14 is rapidly speeding up its rollout to non-Pixel devices.