Android Auto will no longer require a compatible car

We didn’t see anything specific regarding Android Auto at the main event of Google I/O 2016 yesterday, but Google has announced that they are working on the platform to make it available to a larger audience. If you have been itching to try out Android Auto but don’t have a compatible car that supports the system, then you are in luck as you won’t need that any more.

According to Google, Android Auto will be receiving a new update very soon which will enable the full experience right onto your Android smartphone, without having it to be plugged into a compatible car. So basically you only need to mount your smartphone into a cradle or a dock and load the app on the handset. User will no longer have to rely on the display of their infotainment centre and considering that smartphones are become huge, toggling on such a screen shouldn’t be a huge problem.

The app will run just like the original concept and will also offer voice commands to navigate, play music, search for weather, and so on. Of course you will have to connect your phone to your existing car stereo system with either Bluetooth or a standard 3.5mm audio cable. The update will bring the same simplified UI to your phone and will definitely help drivers reduce on distractions as they can just use the phone with their voice. The new update will also bring support for Waze navigation , in case you don’t want to use Google’s own navigation.

This update should lure in a large audience as car manufacturers, especially in India, have been slow in integrating Android Auto based infotainment systems. With users getting the same experience on their handsets, it will become much simpler and intuitive.