I wish someone told me about these 5 Android Auto settings sooner

Up until about two months ago, I had been driving a 2003 PT Cruiser for nearly a decade. That car and I went through so many stages of life together, but unfortunately, a busted transmission and a $4,000+ repair bill ended our time together earlier this year.

That meant it was time to buy a new car. I ended up with a 2022 Hyundai Tucson, and as you might expect, there’s a big technological shift when buying a car that’s almost 20 years newer. I now have cruise control, heated seats, and — of course — Android Auto.

I basically went into learning Android Auto blind, and after just a couple of months, I don’t know how I lived without it for so long. However, my introduction to the platform would have been even better if someone had first told me about these 5 settings.

By default, the bottom bar in Android Auto serves as a taskbar for your apps. It’s great if you frequently switch between multiple applications, but there’s another way to use the taskbar that I find much more helpful.

On your Android phone, open the Settings app, tap the search bar/icon at the top of the page, and type “Android Auto” to find and access Android Auto settings on your phone (select the one that says “Use apps on your vehicle screen”). Once you’re on the Android Auto settings page, scroll down to the Display section, then tap the toggle next to Taskbar widgets.

Once this is enabled, your taskbar will now display miniature widgets instead of your app icons, depending on what you’re doing. For example, if you have music playing but open the Google Maps app, you’ll see a mini music player widget in the taskbar with quick access to playback controls. Alternatively, if you have your music app in full-screen, you’ll see Maps turn-by-turn directions in the taskbar.

This may sound like a small change, but it’s been one of my favorite Android Auto settings so far. It’s such a smart way to enable multitasking in the car, and I don’t plan to ever turn off these taskbar widgets.

The Android Auto launcher may not be as customizable as the launcher on your Android phone, but that doesn’t mean it has zero customization. In fact, there’s a whole page dedicated to it.

Staying on the same Android Auto settings page (you’ll use it for all of the tips in this article), scroll down until you see the Display section we were just at. Right above the Taskbar widgets setting, tap Customize launcher.

This takes you to a new page where you can completely customize the appearance of your Android Auto app drawer. You can rearrange the order in which apps appear by moving the handles on the left. Additionally, tapping the checkbox for any apps you don’t want to see will hide them from the app drawer. It may not be the most groundbreaking customization ever, but I’ll take what I can get.

As I’m sure most people do, I frequently have navigation and media playback running when I’m in the car. By default, Android Auto displays your maps/navigation app on the left side (closest to the driver) and whatever media app you’re using to the right.

This layout is fine, but especially if your car has a large cabin or a big infotainment screen, having your media controls on the right can make them just out of reach. Thankfully, Android Auto lets you change this.

From the Android Auto settings page on your phone, scroll to the bottom until you see the Advanced section. Below this, tap Change layout and then tap Media closer to driver. Now, your navigation and media apps swap positions on the home screen, putting your music or podcast controls closer to you.

Speaking of media playback, Android Auto is configured by default to automatically play whatever you were last listening to on your phone right when you turn on your car. I usually don’t mind this, but there are instances where I’d prefer to choose what I’m listening to before Android Auto automatically starts playing something I don’t want.

Once again, there is a setting to correct this. Go back to the Android Auto settings on your phone, and at the top of the page, there’s a section called Startup. Here, tap the toggle next to Start music automatically to disable the feature.

Now, when you get in your car, Android Auto won’t blast you with a song or podcast unless you manually start it first. You’re welcome.

I know some people can’t stand Gemini, but there are times where the AI can be genuinely helpful — especially the more you make it work for you. And believe it or not, there’s a pretty clever way to use Gemini in the car.

From the same Customize launcher page we were on earlier, tap Add a shortcut to the launcher and then tap A Gemini action from the pop-up. From here, you can type in the command you want to give Gemini and add a name for it.

The beauty of Gemini actions is that you can configure multiple things to happen with just the press of a button. For example, I created an action called “Driving home” that does all of the following: Starts turn-by-turn directions back to my house, sets the air conditioner to 70 degrees, turns on the living room lights, and plays one of my go-to playlists on Apple Music.

Gemini actions appear in your app drawer, and you can arrange them alongside your other apps using the same steps above to customize your launcher. If you put some time into creating a few multi-step Gemini actions, they can prove to be extremely powerful.