Google has been on a campaign of late to make Android Auto less an app and more of a background process. They’ve even gone so far as to announce that it will not be a standalone app for future versions of Android. Recently, we’ve seen that Google made the app icon for Android Auto for cars hidden in some versions of Android 10.
What Do We Want to Happen?
We want the Android Auto app to show up again.
Fortunately, there’s a way to bring it back to your launcher if you find it missing. This one’s a little confusing as it’s not visible on our OnePlus 7T but is visible on the Pixel 4 XL. Either way, we want to give you the directions to find the app level settings again for you to be able to edit the options you need when driving with Android Auto.
How to Get There
The good thing is this is possible even if you don’t have the Android Auto app readily available in your launcher. Follow the steps below to navigate the Android Settings app and locate the needed menus.
- Open Settings app
- Locate Apps & notifications and select it
- Tap See all # of apps
- Find and choose Android Auto from this list
- Click Advanced at the bottom of the screen
- Choose the final option of Additional settings in the app
- Customize your Android Auto options from this menu
Safe Driving!
Success! You should now be in the settings options of your Android Auto experience. From here, you can modify things like using the latest UI options from the older versions. Or maybe you want to stop your audio apps from auto resuming the previous songs you played the last time you were driving (this is my personal favorite).
Looking ahead we anticipate that Android 12 will pretty much do away with Android Auto and the app we know. That’s not to say the features won’t be present; they’ll just be folded into the Google Assistant experience.
Google has shown a pretty decent dedication to improving Android Auto and you now have full access to it’s sometimes hidden settings.
