Photo: Google
As many of us learned the hard way, the experience with Android Auto has often been far from flawless, with Google sometimes promising fixes that would bring things back to normal.
While very often these fixes needed a lot of time to actually go live for users, the most recent update that Google pushed to its devices comes with several surprises for the Android Auto world, including highly-anticipated patches for at least two widespread bugs discovered lately.
More specifically, the November security patch, which is now live for Google devices but would soon make its way to all the other Android devices out there, resolves two important bugs in Android Auto.
The first of them is a glitch preventing phone calls when running Android Auto on the screen. Needless to say, one of the best things about Android Auto is that it makes handling calls and messages much more convenient when driving, so if this feature is broken down, the whole thing kind of defeats its purpose.
Making phone calls on Android Auto, however, has been quite a struggle lately for many users, especially for those who updated their devices to Android 11. And as we told you a few weeks ago, such problems were encountered in the majority of cars out there, including Ford, Kia, and others.
Then, the new Android update fixes a bug causing incorrect audio routing in Android Auto mode. More specifically, what happened in this case was the sound, either of a phone call or the music, going to the mobile device and not to the car speakers, despite the smartphone actually connected to the head unit with Android Auto running on the screen.
Google also mentions other fixes that aren’t necessarily linked with Android Auto but which could also resolve similar glitches for drivers, including media audio stutter during playback in certain apps (Android Auto users have been complaining of this for quite a long time) and the inadvertent playlist removal in YouTube Music.
Google says these fixes are aimed at Google Pixel 4, Google Pixel 4 XL, Google Pixel 4a, and Google Pixel 5, but once installed, the update should improve the experience for everybody on Android Auto.
More specifically, the November security patch, which is now live for Google devices but would soon make its way to all the other Android devices out there, resolves two important bugs in Android Auto.
The first of them is a glitch preventing phone calls when running Android Auto on the screen. Needless to say, one of the best things about Android Auto is that it makes handling calls and messages much more convenient when driving, so if this feature is broken down, the whole thing kind of defeats its purpose.
Making phone calls on Android Auto, however, has been quite a struggle lately for many users, especially for those who updated their devices to Android 11. And as we told you a few weeks ago, such problems were encountered in the majority of cars out there, including Ford, Kia, and others.
Then, the new Android update fixes a bug causing incorrect audio routing in Android Auto mode. More specifically, what happened in this case was the sound, either of a phone call or the music, going to the mobile device and not to the car speakers, despite the smartphone actually connected to the head unit with Android Auto running on the screen.
Google also mentions other fixes that aren’t necessarily linked with Android Auto but which could also resolve similar glitches for drivers, including media audio stutter during playback in certain apps (Android Auto users have been complaining of this for quite a long time) and the inadvertent playlist removal in YouTube Music.
Google says these fixes are aimed at Google Pixel 4, Google Pixel 4 XL, Google Pixel 4a, and Google Pixel 5, but once installed, the update should improve the experience for everybody on Android Auto.
Google News