Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
The more users receive the new Android Auto design, the more glitches are discovered. This time, Coolwalk seems to be plagued with a lag issue that impacts both music apps and navigation software.
Coolwalk allows users to run apps side-by-side in dedicated cards. The focus is put on the apps that most people use, such as navigation solutions and audio players. The likes of Google Maps receive the largest card on Coolwalk, while Spotify and the rest of the music apps receive the remaining screen estate.
Running these apps on the same screen seems to cause a lag bug that eventually causes Android Auto to freeze completely.
The behavior is sometimes different, but in all cases, Android Auto stops responding because the lag is gradually increasing.
It all starts with everything running properly on Android Auto. Listening to music and route guidance provided by Google Maps works correctly. As users drive, Android Auto starts exhibiting a small delay, and the app becomes slow and choppy.
Google Maps suffers from the same problem. The navigation is getting slower, down to a point where it can no longer track users on the map. As such, the turn-by-turn navigation it provides is irrelevant, as your location is typically ahead of what you see on the map.
Android Auto eventually freezes completely, and the only way to restore it is to reconnect the mobile device to the head unit. Once you do this, everything is back up and running. Some users claim that pausing the music also restores Android Auto.
I tried force-closing Spotify and discovered that Android Auto is indeed dropping the lag. Google Maps also seems to work correctly when Spotify isn’t running.
While all signs seem to indicate a glitch in Spotify’s Coolwalk implementation, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Someone on Google’s forums claims other audio apps are impacted as well, including Musicolet. As such, chances are the problem resides in Coolwalk and the way it handles music software.
In my car, the lag only happens occasionally, and pausing the music playback does not fix the bug. On the other hand, if I use Google Maps and Waze in full screen (dashboard support is still in beta for this app) without Spotify, the navigation never experiences the said lag.
For the time being, the issue doesn’t seem to be very widespread. This makes sense especially given Coolwalk is still rolling out, so not all users received it. Google uses a server-controlled release, and the new interface is not tied to a specific update. As a result, Android Auto users are provided with the new interface in stages, with the rollout projected to complete by the end of the year. The latest stable version of Android Auto is 9.0 and it also exhibits this bug.
Running these apps on the same screen seems to cause a lag bug that eventually causes Android Auto to freeze completely.
The behavior is sometimes different, but in all cases, Android Auto stops responding because the lag is gradually increasing.
It all starts with everything running properly on Android Auto. Listening to music and route guidance provided by Google Maps works correctly. As users drive, Android Auto starts exhibiting a small delay, and the app becomes slow and choppy.
Google Maps suffers from the same problem. The navigation is getting slower, down to a point where it can no longer track users on the map. As such, the turn-by-turn navigation it provides is irrelevant, as your location is typically ahead of what you see on the map.
Android Auto eventually freezes completely, and the only way to restore it is to reconnect the mobile device to the head unit. Once you do this, everything is back up and running. Some users claim that pausing the music also restores Android Auto.
I tried force-closing Spotify and discovered that Android Auto is indeed dropping the lag. Google Maps also seems to work correctly when Spotify isn’t running.
While all signs seem to indicate a glitch in Spotify’s Coolwalk implementation, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Someone on Google’s forums claims other audio apps are impacted as well, including Musicolet. As such, chances are the problem resides in Coolwalk and the way it handles music software.
In my car, the lag only happens occasionally, and pausing the music playback does not fix the bug. On the other hand, if I use Google Maps and Waze in full screen (dashboard support is still in beta for this app) without Spotify, the navigation never experiences the said lag.
For the time being, the issue doesn’t seem to be very widespread. This makes sense especially given Coolwalk is still rolling out, so not all users received it. Google uses a server-controlled release, and the new interface is not tied to a specific update. As a result, Android Auto users are provided with the new interface in stages, with the rollout projected to complete by the end of the year. The latest stable version of Android Auto is 9.0 and it also exhibits this bug.
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