Android Auto used to be a pretty plain experience, but at the time, it was just good enough. However, over the past year, we’ve seen some dramatic additions that really take the experience to a new place. Perhaps the largest addition has been Gemini on Android Auto.
More recently, we also got a small tweak that made navigating a lot easier. Naturally, we can’t wait to see what Google comes up with next. Luckily, we won’t be completely in the dark, with Android Authority shedding light that at some point we’ll be getting widgets in Android Auto.
A great way to spice things up
Now this isn’t the first time we’ve heard about home screen widgets arriving to Android Auto. The first report came out some months ago, but since then, things have been fairly quiet. Luckily, Android Authority provides some new information about the feature and how it’s evolved since that time.
With that said, none of this is official yet, with the news outlet just looking through the code to piece things together. Its most recent discovery comes from Android Auto version 16.8.161804. According to the news outlet, Google now has a proper label for the feature, titled “car widgets” for now.
Tapping into the widgets menu provides an array of different options. The good part is that this widget menu system looks similar to what you’d find on your phone or tablet. There’s a featured section, and an area where you can browse widgets as well. Google has even added a search bar at the top, which could indicate support for a large library of widgets at some point.
In addition to the above, Android Authority also discovered new weather icons, which could be used in a future update. While this all looks fairly exciting, we unfortunately don’t really know when this feature will arrive. Naturally, we would love to see something like this announced at Google I/O, which is set to take place in May, but you never really know.
But the good news is that it looks like Google is still working on it and refining it. So, we should see this come to fruition at some point. Who knows, maybe widgets for Android Auto might be just around the corner, which could introduce a whole new experience.
