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Google Quietly Updates Android Auto with Two Highly Anticipated Features

Google has quietly enabled two highly anticipated features in Android Auto, and as it turns out, they are both powered by a server-side switch as they only showed up a few days ago.
The AA bar showing two lines of text 1 photo
Photo: reddit user shmykelsa
The previous update landed on July 30 and made it to the Google Play Store in early August.

First and foremost, one improvement concerns the dynamic bar that shows up at the bottom of the screen and which was introduced with the major UI overhaul released for Android Auto last summer.

Beginning this week, Android Auto now shows both the title and the artist of the playing song in this bottom bar, as it’s been updated to display two lines of text. Previously, the bar could only show just one row of information, and it’ll be interesting to see if the same approach is being used for navigation too.

In other words, the dynamic bar can now display even more information without the need for any kind of user input.

And then, Google Assistant has also received a tweak, as Android Auto now displays the text that it recognizes when you use voice commands. So for example, if you tell the assistant to “play Nickelback,” the Android Auto Google Assistant overlay should now display these spoken words as they are being recognized. This way, you can be sure that you’re provided with the right operation based on your command.

Again, these features aren’t part of the latest updates and there’s not much you can do to get them since they’re enabled by Google with a server-side switch. Most likely, they are released as part of a gradual rollout, which means that users would receive them in stages in the coming weeks.

The next Android Auto update is projected to go live in late August or early September, so we’re only a couple of weeks away from the moment this new version becomes available for download.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
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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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