Photo: AI Sutton on Twitter
Google is very committed to expanding the Android experience beyond the mobile phone, and the screens inside cars on the road have become one of the company’s main targets.
To make sure drivers stick with Android even when getting behind the wheel, the Mountain View-based tech giant is trying to expand on two apparently similar yet extremely different fronts.
Android Auto and Android Automotive are two products named similarly but having two completely different routes in the automotive world. And Google apparently knows it’s sometimes pretty difficult for users to figure out which one is which.
This is why Google is now preparing a new logo for Android Automotive Operating System that has a double purpose. First of all, an animated version of the logo will show up when turning on the engine in a car powered by Android Automotive, therefore making it clear the vehicle is running on Google software.
But second of all, it makes it easier for users to distinguish Android Automotive from Android Auto. The AAOS acronym, which Google seems to insist on, makes a lot more sense in the long term than Android Automotive, especially as it helps fight this whole confusion created around Google’s automotive ambitions.
What’s harder for Google is to make people understand the differences between the two.
Android Auto is powered by a mobile device running Android, with the app requiring a compatible head unit (which in most cases supports Apple’s CarPlay as well). As a result, Android Auto can’t exist without an Android device to offer the mirroring experience.
Android Automotive, on the other hand, is a fully-featured operating system that’s installed on the head unit specifically to power the infotainment capabilities. It also comes with deeper integration of Google services, so Google Assistant, for example, allows the driver to control the climate settings using nothing but voice commands. The adoption of Android Automotive, however, is still in its early days and making progress at a rather slow pace.
Android Auto and Android Automotive are two products named similarly but having two completely different routes in the automotive world. And Google apparently knows it’s sometimes pretty difficult for users to figure out which one is which.
This is why Google is now preparing a new logo for Android Automotive Operating System that has a double purpose. First of all, an animated version of the logo will show up when turning on the engine in a car powered by Android Automotive, therefore making it clear the vehicle is running on Google software.
But second of all, it makes it easier for users to distinguish Android Automotive from Android Auto. The AAOS acronym, which Google seems to insist on, makes a lot more sense in the long term than Android Automotive, especially as it helps fight this whole confusion created around Google’s automotive ambitions.
What’s harder for Google is to make people understand the differences between the two.
Android Auto is powered by a mobile device running Android, with the app requiring a compatible head unit (which in most cases supports Apple’s CarPlay as well). As a result, Android Auto can’t exist without an Android device to offer the mirroring experience.
Android Automotive, on the other hand, is a fully-featured operating system that’s installed on the head unit specifically to power the infotainment capabilities. It also comes with deeper integration of Google services, so Google Assistant, for example, allows the driver to control the climate settings using nothing but voice commands. The adoption of Android Automotive, however, is still in its early days and making progress at a rather slow pace.
Google News