Tutorials

How to use Android Auto from your mobile if your car does not have an integrated screen

More and more cars come with Android Auto on their consoles and Google does not stop launching While we wait for the driving mode to reach everyone, in this tutorial we will explain how you can use Android Auto from the mobile screen, without integrated screen or cables of any kind. You will only need an Android mobile and a support to place the mobile.

Step one: open the app

It is not as simple as it seems and it will depend on the mobile we have. The first thing you should know is that in Google Play there are two applications– One is ‘Android Auto’ and the other is called ‘Android Auto for phones’. In the case of Android Auto, the normal thing is that the application does not even appear in the application drawer (except in the case of the Pixel that you will have it as one more app that you can launch), so you have to open the version to phones, if you can …

We have done tests and some are able to open the ‘Android Auto for phones’ app without problems, while others do not. If you run into this problem, tap on downloading an activity launcher as Activity Launcher and do it manually as we explain below.

Android Auto Mobile

Activity Launcher allows us to launch Android Auto on phones where it is not possible by default.

  • We open Activity Launcher and look for Android Auto in the list of apps.
  • We do a long press on the process to execute (in our case it has worked with “com.google.android.gearhead.vanagon.home1”) and click on ‘Run Activity’.
  • If it worked, go back to Activity Launcher and repeat the process, but this time create a shortcut to always have it at hand.

As we said, we have tested various devices and have had mixed results. With the Pixel 4 XL there has been no problem since Android Auto appears as one more app that we can launch. In the POCO M3 Pro we have had to install ‘Android Auto for phones’ and it has opened without problem, but in the Huawei P40 Pro we have had to use the ‘Activity Launcher’ trick. We’d like to provide one method that works the same for everyone, but Google doesn’t make it easy.

On the other hand, comment that ‘Android Auto for phones’ is an app that has not been updated since 2019, so does not have the latest news that have reached the platform. Ideally, use the Assistant’s driving mode, but Google has taken a long time to launch (two years) and it is not yet available to everyone, so this is the best way to have Android Auto on your mobile.

Android Auto

Android Auto

  • Price: Free
  • Developer: Google
  • Download: on Google Play

Android Auto for phones

Android Auto for phones

  • Price: Free
  • Developer: Google
  • Download: on Google Play

This is Android Auto on mobile

Android Auto Mobile

When we run it for the first time, we find the Android Auto splash screen and, right after, the list of permissions that we must accept to use it. The list includes permissions such as the telephone, SMS, location or microphone, all necessary to be able to control the functions that the app offers us, so do not be surprised if the list is long.

Android Auto Mobile

The home interface is super simple and consists of the clock widget and a few controls. On the top left we have access to the settings menu and on the right the microphone icon to use Google Assistant. We recommend using the microphone as the detection is very good and thus avoiding distractions while driving. At the bottom we have more controls, from left to right they are the following:

  • Home or Back button: has a circle icon. If we press it while on the main screen, we will exit Android Auto, while if we press it while inside an app we will return to the main screen.
  • Maps: when pressed, it will show us the map apps that we have installed, in our case Maps and Waze.
  • Telephone: does not need much explanation … to make calls.
  • Multimedia: here we will have access to different multimedia playback applications such as Spotify, Tidal and others.

As we said, the most comfortable and safest thing is to pull the Assistant and ask it to take us to a destination or play a song directly with our voice. In this way we we avoid touching the screen a lot, something that we remember is not allowed during the march.

Android Auto Mobile

Finally, briefly comment on what we find when we open the side menu of the app. From here we can see information about the app, in

As we said above, Android Auto for phones is an app that has not been updated since 2019 and Everything indicates that it will end up disappearing. However, seeing the time it took Google to release the new driving mode, it is worth having this alternative while we wait for it to reach everyone.

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