Photo: Google
The release of the highly-anticipated Android Auto redesign, also known by pundits as Coolwalk, was, perhaps, the most important announcement of the year for the application and for its growing community out there.
Originally supposed to go live last summer, the card-based interface needed more time to get ready for prime time. As such, it landed in the beta program in December and started rolling out for everybody out there this week.
Google can’t stop fueling the excitement for Coolwalk, and today, it shipped the very first update of the year for Android Auto. Still available in the beta program, Android Auto 8.7 doesn’t seem to bring any notable change at first glance, mostly because the focus has likely been on improvements under the hood.
There’s a chance, however, that Android Auto 8.7 beta comes with additional refinements for Coolwalk, especially as the overall experience still needs more polishing here and there.
Now, I hate to be the one bringing the bad news, but here’s the one thing that you must know about this huge Android Auto redesign: it’s rolling out in stages, and there’s nothing you can do to enable it than wait.
In the last few days, I’ve seen plenty of people trying all kinds of workarounds just to get Coolwalk, and of course, none of them produced an improvement. If it did, it was all just a coincidence, and Google would have enabled Coolwalk on their devices anyway.
In other words, just don’t try downgrading or updating Android Auto to a specific version because that’s not going to work. Furthermore, messing with developer settings, clearing the cache and the data, or resetting the existing configuration won’t bring you the redesign either.
The rollout is powered by a server-side switch, which means that Google will enable the new experience for your device when the company has enough data to make sure everything would be running smoothly. This is a system that gives the search company enough time to guarantee top reliability for its new products, and it makes perfect sense, given major updates typically come with an increased likelihood of bugs.
Google didn’t provide an ETA as to when it plans to complete the rollout of the Android Auto redesign, but the process shouldn’t take too long anyway. Most likely, most users should get Coolwalk in the coming weeks.
For the time being, if you want to download the new beta build, you can find the APK installer on this page. Download the file, and then manually install it on your device – keep in mind that you’re going to provide it with special permissions, as by default, Android phones aren’t configured to allow the installation of apps from sources other than the Google Play Store.
Google can’t stop fueling the excitement for Coolwalk, and today, it shipped the very first update of the year for Android Auto. Still available in the beta program, Android Auto 8.7 doesn’t seem to bring any notable change at first glance, mostly because the focus has likely been on improvements under the hood.
There’s a chance, however, that Android Auto 8.7 beta comes with additional refinements for Coolwalk, especially as the overall experience still needs more polishing here and there.
Now, I hate to be the one bringing the bad news, but here’s the one thing that you must know about this huge Android Auto redesign: it’s rolling out in stages, and there’s nothing you can do to enable it than wait.
In the last few days, I’ve seen plenty of people trying all kinds of workarounds just to get Coolwalk, and of course, none of them produced an improvement. If it did, it was all just a coincidence, and Google would have enabled Coolwalk on their devices anyway.
In other words, just don’t try downgrading or updating Android Auto to a specific version because that’s not going to work. Furthermore, messing with developer settings, clearing the cache and the data, or resetting the existing configuration won’t bring you the redesign either.
The rollout is powered by a server-side switch, which means that Google will enable the new experience for your device when the company has enough data to make sure everything would be running smoothly. This is a system that gives the search company enough time to guarantee top reliability for its new products, and it makes perfect sense, given major updates typically come with an increased likelihood of bugs.
Google didn’t provide an ETA as to when it plans to complete the rollout of the Android Auto redesign, but the process shouldn’t take too long anyway. Most likely, most users should get Coolwalk in the coming weeks.
For the time being, if you want to download the new beta build, you can find the APK installer on this page. Download the file, and then manually install it on your device – keep in mind that you’re going to provide it with special permissions, as by default, Android phones aren’t configured to allow the installation of apps from sources other than the Google Play Store.
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