Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
Since the Coolwalk announcement in early January, the release of new app updates is perhaps the main thing that most Android Auto users are interested in.
Google has just kicked off the rollout of a new testing build to users enrolled in its beta program.
Android Auto 9.0.1307 is the very first build of version 9.0, but despite the version upgrade, it doesn’t seem to bring any breaking changes.
It’s no longer a surprise that Google ships Android Auto updates without changelogs, and this latest beta build makes no exception. The new version is live for users enrolled in the beta program, so the quest for discovering what's been changed is kicking off again.
Sideloading is perhaps the method that Android Auto ended up falling in love with, as it allows them to try out new versions before they are officially released. This approach involves the manual downloading of the APK file on the Android device. After the installer is saved on the local storage, users must launch the update by tapping the APK in a file manager. During the update, they might be prompted to allow the installation of apps from third-party sources, as, by default, Android is configured to only run apps from the Google Play Store.
Once the permissions are granted, the new version of Android Auto should be installed on the device, with no further action required.
While so many users are eager to install new Android Auto updates because of Coolwalk, the rollout of this big redesign isn’t in any way tied to new versions of the app. This is why Android Auto 9.0 doesn’t bring any change on this front, so if Coolwalk isn’t already enabled on your device, the new version of the app doesn’t activate it either.
Google is using a server-controlled rollout of Coolwalk, and the experience is enabled in stages for Android devices out there. As such, users can’t do anything else than wait for Google to activate the redesign in their cars as well. Based on reports online, the rollout is gaining pace these days, so we shouldn’t be too far from the moment the general availability is reached.
In the meantime, Google is also working on other big improvements for Android Auto. The company said in January that Android Auto would get support for WhatsApp calls, and presumably, the public testing of this feature would begin once the rollout of Coolwalk is complete. For now, however, Google has other WhatsApp-related problems to deal with, as users claim that replying to messages with Google Assistant no longer works. Android Auto 9.0 beta doesn’t seem to produce any improvement for WhatsApp users in this regard, but other fixes are most likely included anyway.
Android Auto 9.0.1307 is the very first build of version 9.0, but despite the version upgrade, it doesn’t seem to bring any breaking changes.
It’s no longer a surprise that Google ships Android Auto updates without changelogs, and this latest beta build makes no exception. The new version is live for users enrolled in the beta program, so the quest for discovering what's been changed is kicking off again.
Sideloading is perhaps the method that Android Auto ended up falling in love with, as it allows them to try out new versions before they are officially released. This approach involves the manual downloading of the APK file on the Android device. After the installer is saved on the local storage, users must launch the update by tapping the APK in a file manager. During the update, they might be prompted to allow the installation of apps from third-party sources, as, by default, Android is configured to only run apps from the Google Play Store.
Once the permissions are granted, the new version of Android Auto should be installed on the device, with no further action required.
While so many users are eager to install new Android Auto updates because of Coolwalk, the rollout of this big redesign isn’t in any way tied to new versions of the app. This is why Android Auto 9.0 doesn’t bring any change on this front, so if Coolwalk isn’t already enabled on your device, the new version of the app doesn’t activate it either.
Google is using a server-controlled rollout of Coolwalk, and the experience is enabled in stages for Android devices out there. As such, users can’t do anything else than wait for Google to activate the redesign in their cars as well. Based on reports online, the rollout is gaining pace these days, so we shouldn’t be too far from the moment the general availability is reached.
In the meantime, Google is also working on other big improvements for Android Auto. The company said in January that Android Auto would get support for WhatsApp calls, and presumably, the public testing of this feature would begin once the rollout of Coolwalk is complete. For now, however, Google has other WhatsApp-related problems to deal with, as users claim that replying to messages with Google Assistant no longer works. Android Auto 9.0 beta doesn’t seem to produce any improvement for WhatsApp users in this regard, but other fixes are most likely included anyway.
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