Android Auto is officially saying goodbye to the version that works directly on your phone, as it moves to being an experience “only available for car screens.”
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You might have read recently that Google is turning Assistant Driving Mode into its primary driving experience on smartphones, with a version of Android Auto going by the wayside. Let’s take a minute to clear things up – Android Auto is not going away.
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Android Auto is an excellent platform, but as it’s evolved, it’s also removed some of its features. Over the past week, it’s become clear that Google is ready to say goodbye to the Android Auto for Phone Screens experience in its entirety.
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Android Auto for Phone Screens was supposed to be a simple stop-gap leading up to the launch of Google Assistant’s Driving Mode, but with that feature still nowhere to be found, Google is making some improvements. This week, Android Auto for Phone Screens is being updated with improved Google Maps support.
The extreme to which Google takes the ‘fail forward’ mentality has earned it a reputation of being the world’s best product killer, and one of the more recent of those was the Android Auto phone screen experience. In a rare move, it looks like Google is backtracking on that and offering consolation for those perturbed by the move to the new Assistant driving mode…
Android Auto recently got a huge redesign, but the company had previously confirmed that the experience would be leaving smartphone screens as Assistant’s Driving Mode released. Now, it seems Google is backtracking that with a new “Android Auto for Phone Screens” app.
