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Google Planning “Interesting Things” for Android Auto as App Loses Notifications

The controversial privacy policy updates announced by WhatsApp earlier this year have generated a huge spike in the number of users moving to alternative messaging services. Signal is one of the apps that benefitted the most from this transition.
Google working on several big new features for Android Auto 1 photo
Photo: Google
Like other fully-featured messaging applications, Signal also comes with support for Android Auto, allowing users to get their notifications while driving and then have them read with Google Assistant.

But as we told you not a long time ago, the Signal notifications have been broken in Android Auto for a while, with several users explaining they don’t show up at all on their devices, no matter the Android phone or version they were running.

As it turns out, however, this isn’t necessarily a bug, as the Signal dev team has disabled notification support for the application because of some changes currently being made in Android Auto. In other words, the Signal notifications aren’t working as planned because of the under-the-hood work currently underway at Google, so the feature is projected to come back rather sooner than later.

Don't be alarmed by the recent commit in 5.10.4, it's only temporary, Google is doing some interesting things with auto and won't let us submit updates until we jump some hoops so we had to temporarily disable,” a Signal developer explained recently.

Google is working on several big changes for Android Auto, with multiple new features spotted in the latest updates for the app. For example, the company is developing a connection troubleshooter that should help deal with bad cables and work profiles to separate personal apps from the ones we use for work.

However, all these improvements are currently in development, and given that Google has remained tight-lipped on its long-term plans for Android Auto, nobody knows for sure when they are supposed to land for all users out there.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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