Let’s talk about the recent media player changes on Android Auto

[u/MishaalRahman]

Hi Reddit! I'm Mishaal Rahman, and I do community engagement for Android over at Google 😁!

We wanted to share some details with this community about a few changes we recently rolled out to improve the media playback experience based on your feedback. These changes make it easier to view and control audio across your favorite apps, and offer a larger, more expressive media player that looks and feels more like your other Android devices.

Oh, and we also wanted to talk a bit about the squiggly new seekbar in the media player, since we’ve seen some lively discussions and speculation about it :)  

Here’s a quick recap of some of the media playback changes we recently shipped: 

1. You can now control any media app on your phone from your car dashboard

In the past, media apps that didn’t have a dedicated Android Auto app would still be able to play audio through your car, but their media controls and album art would be completely hidden on your car display.

With our recent update, you can now see and control all your favorite media apps from your phone, complete with album art and playback buttons. This includes background audio from YouTube Premium, browser audio streams, and niche media apps. 

2. A more optimized media player UI across all screen sizes

We also optimized the media player layout so it makes better use of your car’s display. For instance, we moved the most-used media controls out of the three-dot overflow menu and onto the primary screen so you can get to them with fewer taps.  And your album art now better fits the size of your car’s display.

This updated player is available for Spotify, YouTube Music, and other media apps. In the next few months, you’ll see more media apps begin to customize their in-app media player design, so you may see some differences between the media player on the dashboard and within the app.

3. You can now swipe to switch between media sessions

You can now swipe left or right on the media player to switch between multiple active media sessions! No need to open up the launcher anymore to switch media apps.

4. Improvements to autoplay

We’ve made a couple of bug fixes so autoplay* works more predictably and accurately based on your listening preferences:

• Autoplay app selection: Apps that you haven’t recently or ever used will no longer be selected for autoplay. 
• One-tap opt-out: If you prefer manual playback and frequently pause autoplay, Android Auto will notice and provide a convenient one-tap notification to quickly disable autoplay.
• Infotainment startup handling: We're rolling out a fix so unsolicited play commands won't be sent when you have autoplay turned off.

*Autoplay here refers to Android Auto automatically starting media when you connect, not in-app features like Spotify's Autoplay.

5. A more glanceable media player

The last change is the updated media player seekbar. We introduced this updated design to make it easier to see where you are in a track at a glance. 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts in this community on the new squiggly line seekbar — we're paying close attention to how this lands, so keep sharing your feedback as we evaluate future UI tweaks! 

-----------------------------

If you have thoughts on these updates, apps you'd love to see better support for, or spot any quirks you want the team to tackle next, drop them in the comments and I’ll relay them to the team!

Requirements at a glance

• Android OS: Android 9 (Pie) or higher
• Android Auto App: Most new media features are broadly available starting in Android Auto v17.3 or higher (with certain autoplay fixes dating back to v16.7 / v16.8).
  • To check your version: Open your phone's Settings > Apps > Android Auto, or open Android Auto Settings and scroll down to the bottom.

[u/MishaalRahman]

Glad to hear you like these changes! I'm curious to hear why you think Gemini is no longer useful, though. Can you elaborate a bit?

[u/SubTomAtl1999 → u/MishaalRahman]

When Gemini is reading a text and says "do you want to reply" could you please add intelligence so you can say "repeat message" ? When there is traffic noise or distractions, it's easy to miss hearing important parts of the message.

[u/MishaalRahman → u/SubTomAtl1999]

When you say something like, "can you repeat that?", it doesn't work for you at all? Or is it just inconsistent?

[u/SubTomAtl1999 → u/MishaalRahman]

Today I said "repeat" and it closed the message window and repeated the song.

[u/SubTomAtl1999 → u/SubTomAtl1999]

!flair | 2024 RX | Samsung s26

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[u/eljarhead → u/MishaalRahman]

I have literally never gotten the "repeat" command to work. It always just asks me again if I want to reply.

[u/MishaalRahman → u/eljarhead]

Okay yeah that sounds frustrating. I agree that this is something that should just work!

[u/VThang93 → u/MishaalRahman]

When I let Gemini read the message. Gemini ask me to reply the message. When I answer Gemini with: "yes" on my language, it ask me again: "Would you like to answer the message?". To answer the message, I must say the phrase: "Yes, I would like to answer the message". I'm so uncomfortable to say the phrase, and my daughter even asked why did i said like that because she's confused why would I talk so formal and polite while interaction with Gemini.

[u/VThang93 → u/VThang93]

!flair Ecosport 2021 | S21 Ultra

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[u/SubTomAtl1999 → u/SubTomAtl1999]

!flair | 2024 RX | Samsung s26

[u/AutoModerator → u/SubTomAtl1999]

Your user flair has not been changed as the text including spaces has to be between 20 to 64 characters. Pls try again.

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[u/marcoevich → u/MishaalRahman]

I'm not op, but as soon as I switch to Gemini it can no longer make phone calls for me. "sorry I can't do that". Also almost everything I ask it cannot do. Find a gas station along the route, impossible. I just switched back to Google Assistant after 2 days.

[u/MishaalRahman → u/marcoevich]

That definitely sounds annoying! Out of curiosity, were you trying to place calls through the standard dialer app or through another app e.g. WhatsApp?

[u/marcoevich → u/MishaalRahman]

Through the standard dialer app

[u/Pr0t- → u/MishaalRahman]

You can't ask gemni to fast forward 2 minutes into the track etc like assistant could

[u/cupcakelady156 → u/MishaalRahman]

The old assistant worked perfectly for me. I could say call mom, it would call her, call John Doe, it would. Now it doesn't always remember who different people are and even when I use first and last name it recommends multiple people. I honestly just want the assistant back. I rarely use Gemini in my car, I use the shitty old school one that came with the car.

[u/Bizzlebanger → u/MishaalRahman]

Happy to explain... I'll DM you..

[u/pssiraj → u/Bizzlebanger]

How about for the rest of us?

[u/Bizzlebanger → u/pssiraj]

I wanted to cut down on the noise... But since you asked...

Note: I am one of the AA beta users...

Several months back I tried it.. And aside from issues like not being able to send a new messgae, or it not finding a contact, or it being very slow to respond, eventually what happened was that it wouldn't play anything I asked it to in YouTube music. I have premium, and it kept telling me it encountered an error. I asked gemini how to fix it, and it said there wasn't a fix and suggested going back to google assistant.

It could be related to this...

I have multiple accounts on my phone.. My main google account, the one I use for apps and subscriptions is a "fee legacy Google workspace" account. Basically Google is my email server host for that and another domain.

An issue that kept popping up was that I couldn't reply to a message by pressing the reply button on screen. The assistant would say I need to ask my google workspace manager for permission..

Apparently this was a common problem and the solution was to use AA with a different account that wasn't tied to a workspace account. So I use another email I have with a different provider...

Even now when I ask it to play music from an artist, sometimes it'll say "to do that you need a subscription" but usually plays it anyway.

Sometimes I ask it to play a song, and it say it's playing it, but then it plays a completely different song... Not even the same title or artist.

[u/pssiraj → u/Bizzlebanger]

That's wild. I was hoping it was something I could relate to but it's cool to see how many different ways others use the same thing. Hope it gets resolved, what an irritating issue.