Really Google! How do you not release the update to everyone with a Pixel first! We all bought in to your hardware to get monthly patches, a vanilla experience, and FIRST DIBS ON ANYTHING NEW.

A staggered rollout to all pixel phones should have been first, then third party phones.

No offense to those rocking something other than a Pixel.

Hello!

From the start I must say that between 2015 and 2017 I tested the wired AA implementation in a premium segment head unit and it worked decently (at least didn't have the issues I see now).

A few months ago I purchased a 2020 BMW 5 LCI (G31 facelift), equipped with AA and wireless charging pad. One of the main reasons I picket up the facelift version was that it had AA (only wireless). Non-facelift only received AA in the last months of production and only with a specific parts combination.

As a phone I'm rocking a preordered Exynos Galaxy S24, updated. It replaced an S21.

4 months in, and I find AA to be annoying to use:

- Some times, especially now that the temperatures get higher here in the northern hemisphere, the phone would get hot enough that AA would warn me about the situation

- Charging the phone while AA is working increases the likelihood of the above situation, depending if I use a USB-C cable or the wireless charger

- As the wireless charging was probably developed for the non-facelift version of the car (released in 2017), the charging speed while using AA is a few precents per hour

- Running AA without charging is not really an option as the consumption seems to be quite high.

- So I end up unplugging the phone from the charger every now and then and hold it against the A/C vent while the A/C is set to minimum temperature.

Am I the only one that has this sort of problems? Is this specific to the S24? I understand that, while running AA, the phone is basically rendering another high resolution screen. I also understand that 7 years ago I was testing a lower resolution (it must have had 480 or 600 px on the short edge), 16:9 aspect ratio AA and now I am seeing at least 2-3 times as many pixels. But also the S24 is literally years ahead of the S7, G5 and Nexus 6 that I was using back then for testing purposes.

Is the grass greener on the other side? Is CarPlay any better?

Thanks for allowing me to present my 1st world tech frustrations!

I invested over a thousand bucks in the Alpine ILX-309 just for for the Android Auto experience...only to come away with a bad taste in my mouth. I don't know who to point the finger at... whether it's Android or Alpine but, I'm at my wits end.

First world problems right?!

I feel like I'm using pretty common AA compatible apps... Like Waze, Pandora and Google Podcast on Google Pixel 3A XL with updated software on both my phone and my head unit. But, I constantly get frozen apps that locks down my head unit, dropping calls and all around tom-fuckery when using AA. I've tried multiple cables and even different apps like Pocket Casts instead of Google Podcast and Pandora instead of Spotify... only to get the same results. Can't this shit just work?

I built CarWeather. It is a new weather app for AA. It is live on GooglePlay

Please try it out. Let me know if there are any questions or issues. It is available in US only. It uses NWS for weather provider and this is US only. Apologize to non- US users. I plan on looking into extending to other countries. but the main dependency is the availability of a good weather source.

This started few months ago that a pop up message appears on screen about "police ahead as reported by Waze users" covering all other navigation information on screen. How do I turn off this feature? Many thanks

In another instance of being treated as a second class citizen by Google, it seems I can no longer send texts or make calls using AA with my Google Apps account. I don't really want to switch my whole phone to my non Apps account just to do this. So what are other people doing to get around it?

The latest update, I'm a beta tester, is unusable!

On the wireless connection it could not keep connected for more than 5 minutes, awful!

Version: 17.2.662614-release (172662614)

Edit: Just sharing for anyone who might have the same issue know about it.

Spare me from "why on beta?" or "don't use beta". You are high class, honestly.

Is there a way to display Spotify on the side or anywhere without this ugly filter over the album art? When just looking at Spotify itself it looks clear but side-by-side it looks like this.

How can a passenger control the music that is being played (queue songs or lists) from their own phone when AA runs on mine?

I understand spotify can do that but I have paid version of YT music instead.

Any app that they could use to connect as a remote control to a music app on my phone?

I recently got the update on my device. I use an aftermarket head unit on my personal car and run AA using Zlink. The interface did not change in zlink.

However, I also went on a business trip and the rental I drove showed the Coolwalk interface when I connected my phone. The split screen was fine for a bit, but for someone like me who doesn't really use the screen to change songs or anything that's just wasted space. And sure I can switch to full screen maps in Coolwalk too. The only time I would want the split screen is if I were driving and needed to switch playlists or between Spotify and Podcasts, for which I use Google Assistant.

The way I see it, when it comes to my driving style and the way I use AA, i am indifferent to Coolwalk

Gemini's Assistant took over my Android Auto experience last week and its abysmal.

Simple queries that could be answered and handled by the previous assistant do not even function sanely.

"What is the Den temperature?"

Google Assistant took over my Android Auto experience last week and its abysmal.

Simple queries that could be answered and handled by the previous assistant do not even function sanely.

"What is the Den temperature?"

In Denver, CO, it is currently 87°F with a low of 54°F.

"Hey Google what's the temperature right now?"

In Folsom, on May 11th the temperature will range from 60°F to 94°F.

Its absolutely useless, my workflow was to set the temp to cool the house down while I am driving home, so its not hot in the house, since it was on EchoIn Denver, CO, it is currently 87°F with a low of 54°F.

Hopefully someone from Google sees this.

So with the new update, it looks like Waze is out of the picture? Do I have this correct or am I overlooking something?

Been using Android Auto for several years now. I only still use it because I know of no other options. I have never been happy with this app. It's absolute garbage. Something goes wrong pretty much every time I use it.

The following are just SOME things that have happened. This is all off the top of my head; I'm certain I can come up with more if I really sit down and think of all the grievances I've had with this thing.

-Random disconnections, both wireless and wired. -Literally DELETED BOOKS from Audible. MULTIPLE TIMES. Audible has confirmed this to me. -Erases progress on Google Podcast episodes all the time. -Skipped entire libraries on Google Podcasts (goes from episode 67 to 124 instead of 68). -Google Assistant will register my words maybe once out of every 3 days that I try. I can push the Assistant button and the speaking prompt comes up, but there is no feedback whatsoever. Even the little dots won't move around with the volume of my speaking (or yelling, considering how easy it is to get upset with this app), and of course my words don't show up on the screen at all. -And THEN, on the infrequent times that it DOES WORK, I'll ask it to play a certain song, by a certain artist, on Spotify, that I KNOW is there under the information provided BECAUSE I'VE ASKED FOR IT BEFORE AND IT HAS WORKED, it will just play a completely different song by a completely different artist as if I had said completely different words! Like, what?? Again, double checked in Spotify, and the originally requested song is still there, same information. -Randomly set max volume limits that are like half the volume it's been before (can't hear anything on the freeway) and have no consistent way to reset that max volume to what it should be. -Just remove my volume control altogether, because why not? -Jump my GPS location all around. -Keep my GPS the same, but rapidly change my navigating route to all sorts of fun places IN THE MIDDLE OF NAVIGATING COMPLICATED ROUTES. It is kind of fun to watch the blue line flail all around while my icon just keeps going straight. But super stressful when you don't know where you're supposed to be going. -To top it all off, I tell Google Play Store to automatically update all my apps, then enough things like this happen at once that I decide to check on updates and there are like FIFTEEN APPS THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO AUTOMATICALLY UPDATE AND HAVE JUST SAT THERE.

Yes, I have tried all of these functions in their respective apps and they have worked just fine; don't tell me it's NOT Android Auto doing all this - it absolutely is.

And the best part? I'm forced to use this because I don't have apple products. Otherwise, I would use CarPlay in a heartbeat. I REALLY REALLY wish they didn't have the monopoly on this product. It feels dirty - if you're going to monopolize this, MAKE IT WORK. Like, holy cow. Hire some competent people! I wouldn't be surprised at all if they just DON'T have a QA department.

If anyone knows of android auto alternatives, I would LOVE to hear what you've got to tell me. I'm pretty close to just getting a phone mount and dealing with the tackiness of that instead of this headache.

Mods, I hope you'll consider keeping this up as I'm providing quite a bit of information.

Tried my best with Android Auto. If it was more reliable for me I’d stay but the constant crashes have led me to CarPlay.

For Waze and listening to podcasts this works fine but will miss the usability of Google Maps which is really full featured on AA. Hopefully some of the features come over to CarPlay.

Peace and drive safe!

Posted earlier but didn't have my user flair set up properly, so it was removed by the mod, my bad.

I finally figured out what the "Customize" checkbox does in the Customize Launcher section of AA app. Selecting the checkbox adds a "Customize" icon to the head unit AA screen. Touching that icon will launch the Customize Launcher page in AA on the phone. That's it.

I know you just got the new UI update, I know you really want to take that sweet picture of it with your car in the garage to prove that you got it, but please for privacy's sake, switch to something other than Google Maps so we can't all figure out where you live.