Here’s what’s new with Android for Cars (Android Auto and Android Automotive OS), as announced at #GoogleIO 2023. The biggest announcement IMO is Android Automotive OS 14 based on Android 14 and the new multi-screen feature it’ll bring 👀
Before I get ahead of myself, though, let’s recap Google’s announcements, starting with why you should care. Google expects the # of cars running Android Automotive OS with Google built-in to nearly double by the end of 2023.
Google’s only counting cars whose makers have licensed Google apps (hence “Google built-in”), so there’ll be even more cars running Android Automotive on the streets as some makers opt not to license Google Automotive Services (GAS).
Android Auto, meanwhile, will be available in about 200 million vehicles in 2023, according to Google.
To aid devs in building automotive apps, Google is expanding its Android for Cars App Library with new templates across a number of categories like navigation. These new templates are being introduced alongside the new Waze app, available today for all cars with Google built-in.
Speaking of navigation, apps can now integrate with the instrument cluster to provide info like turn-by-turn directions right in front of the driver. Apps can also access car sensor data to show useful info like range, fuel level, and speed to the driver.
The Android for Cars App Library recently opened up an IoT category for all developers, so if you have an app that interfaces with IoT products, you can make an app for Android Auto and AAOS now. The weather category, on the other hand, is in early access right now.
Audible recently made its way to Android Auto and AAOS. The Weather Channel app will be coming to these platforms later this year. And Zoom, MS Teams, and Cisco Webex will add support for letting you join meetings by audio from your car display.
To improve the parked and passenger experiences, Android for Cars supports apps in video and gaming categories. Soon, an early access program for browsing apps will open up. YouTube is coming to Polestar cars followed by others soon.
👀 Google is bringing multi-screen support to Android Automotive OS 14 based on Android 14. For example, a car with a panoramic front display and screens in headrests can all show apps and video content. More details on AAOS 14 will be shared later.
Google has announced that in Android 14, Health Connect "will be a core part of Android and available on all Android mobile devices." As I previously reported, this is because Health Connect is being shipped as part of a new, mandatory Project Mainline module.
Health Connect in Android 14 will introduce a new exercise routes feature to let users share maps of their workouts and improvements to menstrual cycle logging. And because it's a new Mainline module, it can be updated through Google Play System Updates.
Here's a screenshot of Health Connect integrated into Privacy settings.
Google highlighted some major improvements to Jetpack Compose at #GoogleIO 2023. Here’s a summary of some of the highlights:
In the latest alpha release, Google says they’re seeing an average 22% performance gain for Text and TextField after migrating modifiers to a new and more efficient system. To take advantage of this, update your Compose version.
Compose now also supports the latest emoji version and new text features like outlining text, hyphenation, and line breaking behavior configuration.
What’s new in Android Studio? A lot of things, some of which make use of generative AI to improve your workflow. Here’s what got announced at #GoogleIO 🧵
Android Studio Hedgehog (the latest Canary version, and no, its logo isn’t Sonic) adds a new AI-powered conversational feature called Studio Bot, better tools to develop for multiple form factors, and new insights, debugging, and testing solutions.
Studio Bot is an AI-powered conversational experience that leverages Codey, Google’s foundation model for coding, to help you generate code for your app. You can also ask it questions about Android development or to help you fix errors in your code.
At this year’s #GoogleIO, Google is announcing a bevy of new features for Google Play, including many that leverage generative AI to make it easier to market your app. Here’s a summary of what they announced 🧵:
A new AI tool will help you get started with making a store listing for your app. Just enter a few prompts like audience and key theme, and Google Play’s AI helper will generate a draft you can edit, discard, or use. This is currently only available in English.
Google Play will show review summaries created by Google’s generative AI technology. These summaries — starting with English but expanding later this year — will help users quickly learn about your app from what other users have been saying about it.
Google is showing some love for Wear OS at #GoogleIO 2023. Here’s a summary of what they announced, including the new Wear OS 4 Developer Preview based on Android 13 👀!
Do you like watch faces? It’s the thing you stare at/interact with the most, so it’s no surprise they get a lot of attention. Samsung and Google have teamed up to announce the Watch Face Format: a new way to build watch faces for Wear OS.
According to Google, the Watch Face Format is a declarative XML format to design the appearance and behavior of watch faces. There won’t be any executable code involved in making a watch face, and no code will be embedded in the watch face APK.
The #GoogleIO keynote has kicked off with an appearance from Sundar! In this thread I'll talk about anything new Google announces that's directly related to Android. 👇
Immersive View in Google Maps for Android is getting a major revamp! You'll be able to see an immersive view of your routes and any relevant weather info.
Coming to 15 cities by the end of the year.
Google Photos is getting a new AI-powered Magic Editor feature! This is rolling out later this year.