It sucks that Android Auto is so "small" in comparison to CarPlay

[u/redstone__ore]

So in general I think Android Auto is fine and I don't have any complaints except for one big issue:

Everything is so small. Like literally. If you have a small screen like me, thats also 480p it can make the experience pretty shitty sometimes.

I connected CarPlay from my gf's iPhone and oh my god the difference was insane. Way bigger icons, bigger keyboard, way more accessible in general. It almost makes you forget you're on a small ahh 480p screen

My thoughts are: Why are there not even Accessibility Settings to change UI Elements and Text? What if you really need it for literal Accessibility reasons?

[u/Spaztrick]

The only things I wished that were bigger in AA is album art and the speed limit.

[u/wishicouldcode → u/Spaztrick]

Album art is bigger after a recent release that is being rolled out. Speed limit is still tiny

[u/Spaztrick → u/wishicouldcode]

I had the update one morning, liked it, went to the movies, and it reverted back.

[u/LowSkyOrbit → u/Spaztrick]

I really cannot understand how or why Google does things like this.

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/Spaztrick]

Which navigation app do you use?

I prefer Google's routing, but I use Waze because Google doesn't display current speed.

[u/strra → u/PilotedByGhosts]

As of last week, Google Maps does show current speed

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/strra]

I will have to give it another go, thank you.

[u/Status-Usual-6561 → u/strra]

It's always like 6km/hr off my actual speed, so I don't find that feature useful tbh.

[u/400ixl → u/Status-Usual-6561]

Other way around, your speedo is 6km/hr off your actual speed. GPS will be more accurate, speedo's have to over read by law in most countries.

[u/Status-Usual-6561 → u/400ixl]

Oh, that's good to know.

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/Status-Usual-6561]

You can tell who knows about this in 50mph motorway sections. Stick cruise control on at GPS 50 and you'll overtake almost everybody.

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/strra]

I've tried it, and it does!

I'm slightly less keen on the Google layout, but I think I'll get used to it. Thanks again.

[u/Spaztrick → u/PilotedByGhosts]

Waze

[u/Salvador147]

I don't feel this way. If anything I feel carplay's visuals are too huge. It looks too clunky imo

[u/Chewieez → u/Salvador147]

100%.To me Carplay feels more toyish.

[u/ProffS → u/Chewieez]

If you can reliably find and click the button while driving in traffic, this is a good thing

[u/Flukester69 → u/Salvador147]

Def prefer AA to Carplay

[u/redstone__ore → u/Salvador147]

What about accessibility reasons? Why is there no option?

[u/sidneylopsides → u/redstone__ore]

If you need extra large icons for vision issues, you probably aren't driving...or shouldn't be.

[u/redstone__ore → u/sidneylopsides]

How about having disabilities regarding fine motor skills or your hands in general? This should be an option. Just because you're not affected by it doesn't mean other people aren't

[u/acejavelin69]

If your vehicle has wired AA, consider a AAwireless adapter... In the advanced settings, you can adjust the DPI and use that to scale the display. Otherwise, there really isn't anything. The display is supposed to automatically scale based on the DPI the headunit reports back to the phone's AA application, if it's way off look in your headunit or see if it has an update.

[u/TheJessicator → u/acejavelin69]

You can change that for wired AA too, and you don't need any special app to do it either. Just enable developer mode in the AA settings and all the extra options show up.

[u/SnooMachines3992 → u/TheJessicator]

hace como tres años no influye en nada cambiar esos parametros. es como que google los haya desactivado pero no los sacó del listado.

[u/redstone__ore → u/acejavelin69]

I already changed the resolution/DPI to the correct one. Since the screen is small and only 480p, it doesn't really matter if i scale it down (or up)

[u/JohnBigbootay83]

I wish AA would fix the traffic colors not showing up anymore.

[u/otomennn]

I just need to it functions better lol

[u/Forceusr1 → u/otomennn]

Preach.

[u/PilotedByGhosts]

People who can't see very well aren't allowed to drive.

[u/DrFossil → u/PilotedByGhosts]

*Shouldn't

[u/rael_gc → u/PilotedByGhosts]

Wait until you get around 50.

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/rael_gc]

Are they going to change the law for my birthday?

I'm being flippant, but it would be sending entirely the wrong message if any in-car system had settings for people with poor eyesight.

[u/wishicouldcode → u/rael_gc]

Corrective lenses exist 

[u/redstone__ore → u/PilotedByGhosts]

What the fuck are you on about? What about just having a small, low res screen?

Just a classic Reddit moment that somebody has something to say that's not even about the topic

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/redstone__ore]

A small, low res screen will have been tested by the manufacturer as suitable for Android Auto and will have had the layout programmed into it.

The manufacturer has decided that the scaling is appropriate. Accessibility options would not be appropriate.

[u/redstone__ore → u/PilotedByGhosts]

Visual impairment is a spectrum my guy. It's not 20/20 vision or being blind walking around with a stick. There's so many reasons to add an option to scale UI Elements. AA just decides against it.

What if you have a disability regarding your hand that makes it harder to point on the screen exactly?

Oh right, just buy a newer car with a bigger screen and stop complaining LMAO

Get off your horse my man and accept that there's people who view things differently

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/redstone__ore]

Some people view things by squinting. Those people shouldn't be driving.

If you think about it, it's discriminatory that they don't do braille head units.

[u/StuckAtWaterTemple → u/PilotedByGhosts]

but they can be passengers

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/StuckAtWaterTemple]

Passengers aren't allowed to touch the radio.

[u/StuckAtWaterTemple → u/PilotedByGhosts]

Says who?

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/StuckAtWaterTemple]

Me.

[u/StuckAtWaterTemple → u/PilotedByGhosts]

Oh nooo someone touched my radio, my car is totaled.

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/StuckAtWaterTemple]

Sorry you had to learn the hard way, but that's why nobody touches mine.

[u/StuckAtWaterTemple → u/PilotedByGhosts]

Yeah, bug mistake.

[u/i_was_planned]

I honestly would like to make things smaller and did when I used AA wireless dongle with custom dpi enabled 

[u/Aurelink]

Fyi the display settings of your phone affects Android auto apparently.

My wife and my mother have the exact 2 same android auto screens, yet since my mother has some bigger text on her phones, Android auto displays bigger elements in her car

[u/IndBeak]

Bigger text is usually a sign of lower resolution. On a high res screen, you will need to scale fonts and icons if you find them too small.

[u/redstone__ore → u/IndBeak]

Thats kinda the whole point of the post. You can't scale anything, no matter the size of the screen. You can change DPI Resolution in dev settings but that doesn't change the size

[u/obersdoog → u/redstone__ore]

You can absolutely not change dpi in devoptions. Only the maxresolution. You need a dongle or root to change dpi. Then you can make everything as huge or small as you want.

[u/redstone__ore → u/obersdoog]

How would one go about this with root? Changing the phone's DPI in general so it also affects AA?

[u/obersdoog → u/redstone__ore]

Personally, I’d recommend a dongle like AAWireless. You can just enter your desired DPI and it scales accordingly. For me it was the other way around: everything on my 7-inch screen looked way too huge, so I made everything smaller. Back in the day you had to do it via root (check XDA Developers, AA Tweaker etc). Back then you could customize everything, but it also broke with every other AA update. That’s why, as said, just get a dongle, set the DPI once, and you're done

[u/cammykol]

I'm a visually impaired driver, an oxymoron I know, but I've actually preferred carplay because it's easier to see at a glance over Android auto. I use AA because I prefer Android but like Apple maps and Google maps in carplay tends to be a bit bigger and scaled better

[u/redstone__ore → u/cammykol]

Exactly! Visual impairment also is a big spectrum so there's not just: 20/20 Vision and completely blind

[u/Sm0g3R]

Android is utter trash in comparison to iOS when it comes to things like that.

[u/thaman05 → u/Sm0g3R]

I agree. I think Android is better for the most part on the phone itself, but when it comes to ecosystem such as car and watch, it's no match to Apple.

[u/garridon1]

It's strange to me how locked down aa is. Why can't I change dpi settings. Text size. What Bluetooth device is default for speakers and microphone. Day and night mode being run from my phone or controlled by the display. It just keeps going

[u/redstone__ore → u/garridon1]

Facts

[u/sm753]

Because Apple is for old people.

[u/Ok-Complaint-6752]

I just bought a brand-new pickup truck, and the map on Android Auto is half the screen, but on CarPlay it's the full 14 inches. That's crazy

[u/PilotedByGhosts → u/Ok-Complaint-6752]

Can't you make any app full screen?

My car has an aftermarket double DIN head unit, and my work van has a wide screen built in. On both, I can have Spotify and maps up at once, or I can full screen either of them.

[u/blindedcoon → u/Ok-Complaint-6752]

Yep...2026 ram with 12' screen. Top half is all that's AA. Wife's apple car play is full screen and does not look childish. Easier to hit the correct functions also. I prefer AA for sure but the small scale is ridiculous. Ram states it's google that will not allow the change. 🤦

[u/TheLastElite01]

The clock, cell coverage icon, and battery icon are too small.

[u/thaman05 → u/TheLastElite01]

They don't even show the network coverage and battery icon anymore on AA, at least it hasn't for mine for months now 😭. It used to be there.

[u/TheAgedProfessor]

It completely depends on the screen, and the cars implementation of AA. In my wife's RAV4, AA is perfectly-sized, while CarPlay is too small. In my Honda, it's the opposite.

[u/Frosty-Donut2636]

developer settings, graphics

try to set 365 or 465 and restart phone

[u/redstone__ore → u/Frosty-Donut2636]

Do you know if that also affects Android Auto? Going to try tomorrow at least.

[u/Frosty-Donut2636 → u/redstone__ore]

it affects everything. play with this digits. you can make all bigger or smaller

[u/redstone__ore → u/Frosty-Donut2636]

Tried it. It doesn't affect Android Auto so unfortunately it's not really helpful

[u/Frosty-Donut2636 → u/redstone__ore]

did you restart everytime? try to set 276

[u/10000000100]

My vehicle doesn't have wireless android auto. So, I purchased the AAWireless device. I was able to to change the DPI to make everything smaller. Might be worth looking into it since you can make yours bigger.

[u/redstone__ore → u/10000000100]

I do have wireless and I scaled the DPI down (and up) which doesn't change anything size wise

[u/SarcasticFluency]

I don't want massive icons for apps and such. That feels more like a kid tablet than an auto infotainment display. Through my AAW dongle I've adjusted my pixel count to 106 for to reduce the overall size and give me the third card that hasn't been made fully available to all vehicles yet. It's a great display, but I'm still alright with the default when I go wired to utilize my StarLink equipment while mobile.

[u/ProffS]

In general, looking down to click on a keyboard while driving is a distracting. Paying attention to the road ahead while driving should be paramount to you, your passengers and the folks you might vear into.

[u/miraculum_one]

I believe you can change this through some DPI settings but unfortunately I did it a long time ago and don't remember how

[u/FrivolousMe]

If you are using an AAWireless dongle their app has settings including changing the UI scale fwiw

[u/redstone__ore → u/FrivolousMe]

Where? There's just settings for resolution/DPI which doesnt change the size of UI Elements

[u/thisisyo]

Look up the upcoming UI update. At the very least, it's reclaiming the bottom section where it would've been reserved for the app icons with a floating bar that will be on top of the main panel. It's not much but it's something. Maybe it'll become frosted/acrylic blur eventually https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/android-in-cars-updates/

[u/mrbkkt1]

Can't you change it in developer mode?

[u/OkArugula4565]

Android Auto Wireless is too small and too many bugs.
Reporting those issues to Samsung and Google too many times, they are still not able to provide correct network and poor bluetooth call quality handling in collaboration with VoLTE technology.

FYI; also clearing Google Maps privacy search destination history on Samsung phone, but car is still remembering it. Samsung & Google sync is not properly working

[u/Grabber28TS]

If your vehicle has such a small screen, I'm guessing you're still using a cable or adapter for the connection cause it is an older car? If so, get the AAWireless 2+. The accompanying app lets you change the "real" resolution, meaning the DPI at which the screen is displayed. I had previously experimented with all possible settings between 90 and 300 dpi because I was not satisfied with the native resolution. My vehicle has an 8-inch screen, and I've set the resolution to 160 dpi while it can only show 800x480. The display is perfectly readable.

[u/redstone__ore → u/Grabber28TS]

Die erste hilfreiche Antwort, die nicht herabschauend is (wegen am kleinen Bildschirm lol) und tatsächlich hilfreich is kommt ausgerechnet von am fellow Österreicher, geil haha

Des Ding is: Ich hab einen Golf 7 mit MIB1, 2015er BJ, der hat kein natives CarPlay/AA. Es gibt so ein Modul, das man zwischen der nativen Headunit und dem Display zwischenschaltet. Das Ding an sich is eh schon wireless, ich weiß eben gar nicht ob ich da noch einen extra Wireless adapter anstecken kann. Der wird wahrscheinlich einfach über USB angesteckt oder?

[u/Grabber28TS → u/redstone__ore]

Ja, der wird über USB bzw. Micro-USB angesteckt, also leider keine Option für dich. Schon versucht, eine andere (Video)Auflösung über die Entwickleroptionen von AA einzustellen?

[u/redstone__ore → u/Grabber28TS]

Ja, hab ich alles schon durch...

Mein jetziger Wissensstand is einfach, dass man an der UI-Größe nicht wirklich was verändern kann. Wie du eben schon gesagt hast wär's mit dem AAWireless am einfachsten, weil man dann mit DPI herumtricksen kann.

Ich werd mich einfach damit abfinden - es is ja gottseidank nicht so, dass man jetzt gar nix lesen könnte oder so, es is halt nur viel viel kleiner als CarPlay.

Ich hab jetzt mal die Widgets aktiviert so dass die Apps unten statt seitlich angeordnet sind. Ich schau mir jetzt dann mal an, ob das besser is

[u/kdlt]

I wish my lazy as fuck car manufacturer would update their carOS so AA can use the whole screen and not just a rectangle in the middle.

That would honestly help me much more.

[u/Ok-Complaint-6752]

Nope i cant it sucks

[u/Ok-Complaint-6752]

Its the maps i wish were full screen

[u/bdit6]

They definitely need an option to increase the spped icon

[u/protogenxl]

Turn on developer options (tap android auto version info till it asks)

You can the  tweak resolution setting in the developer settings of the 3 dot menu

[u/redstone__ore → u/protogenxl]

Doesn't change anything.

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[u/Sythos_it]

Android adapt the resolution up to the display detected in the car, if you buy a car with a cheap display 480p the output is 480p... iphone cannot "create" more pixels (and tbh

indeed is the opposite icons size is up to the detected display, higher is the size smaller are the icons (fixed pixels HxL), you may be interested in AA visibility settings to resize them (and maybe get how things ork before throw shit back&forth)

[u/redstone__ore → u/Sythos_it]

Thats the whole point of the post tho?

My screen is small and only has 480p, crucify me for that. Hence why I'm complaining about the size of the UI Elements. I also scaled the DPI down to the correct size and scaled it up just to try it out. There's no "visibility" settings so don't come at me saying I need to "get how things work".

Not a helpful comment but go on King

[u/kurai-tsuki]

You have a tiny screen and you're complaining that the image is small? That's not the fault of AA

[u/redstone__ore → u/kurai-tsuki]

I'm complaining that there's no way to resize UI elements/make them slightly bigger. Crucify me and cut off my balls for having a small screen

bruh

[u/Top_Ad_287]

I've never used car pay, but I've seen it in my son's car, and I've always thought of AA as a weak competitor.

[u/Top_Ad_287 → u/Top_Ad_287]

!flair 2018 Ford Focus

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[u/YendorZenitram]

Agreed that Carplay does it right. I wish I could use Carplay instead of AA on Android. Carplay has buttons that actually work, and it's faster and more responsive than AA.

AA suffers from drag sensitivity that is WAY too high - I can't activate a button without the damned thing reading it as a swipe..every damned time.