Photo: Google forums
There are a lot of awkward bugs on Android Auto, and some unlucky fellows who use the app on a daily basis discovered them the hard way lately.
Some of them are currently struggling with an unexpected behavior that causes Android Auto to automatically disable the dark mode on their phones when driving during the day.
One of the highlights of Android 10 is support for a system-wide dark theme that also triggers other apps, such as browsers and music players, to switch to a dark mode if available.
Needless to say, some have enabled the dark mode all the time, simply because everything looks much better on their phones. Dark mode is the new cool thing in mobile, so this isn’t necessarily something very surprising.
But on the other hand, Android Auto doesn’t seem to like this dark mode that much, as in some cases, it automatically disables it on the phone when the device is connected to the car for driving during daytime. And of course, it doesn’t enable it back, so the phone remains with the light theme enabled system-wide.
The bug isn’t necessarily new and was reported a few months ago, but until now, not only that Google didn’t come up with a fix, but nobody discovered a workaround that could help deal with the whole thing.
“Happening with my Pixel 4 XL as well. When I noticed it I went into system settings and turned it back to dark mode. Then unplugged it and plugged it back in and watched the slider go back to light mode. Very annoying,” someone explains in a discussion on Google’s support forums where so many people have confirmed the same behavior in their cars.
As a matter of fact, forcing Android Auto to use a specific mode or use the car-controlled or phone-controlled settings doesn’t seem to make a difference for those hitting this issue.
One of the highlights of Android 10 is support for a system-wide dark theme that also triggers other apps, such as browsers and music players, to switch to a dark mode if available.
Needless to say, some have enabled the dark mode all the time, simply because everything looks much better on their phones. Dark mode is the new cool thing in mobile, so this isn’t necessarily something very surprising.
But on the other hand, Android Auto doesn’t seem to like this dark mode that much, as in some cases, it automatically disables it on the phone when the device is connected to the car for driving during daytime. And of course, it doesn’t enable it back, so the phone remains with the light theme enabled system-wide.
The bug isn’t necessarily new and was reported a few months ago, but until now, not only that Google didn’t come up with a fix, but nobody discovered a workaround that could help deal with the whole thing.
“Happening with my Pixel 4 XL as well. When I noticed it I went into system settings and turned it back to dark mode. Then unplugged it and plugged it back in and watched the slider go back to light mode. Very annoying,” someone explains in a discussion on Google’s support forums where so many people have confirmed the same behavior in their cars.
As a matter of fact, forcing Android Auto to use a specific mode or use the car-controlled or phone-controlled settings doesn’t seem to make a difference for those hitting this issue.
Google News