Omg thanks a lot for doing this. The first Androis Auto version was great, now they increased number of clicks and taps to get to basic features and it was ready to be hated.
Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app in favor of Google Assistant
51–60 of 71 posts
Re: Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app in favor of Google Assistant
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google has tons of other good ideas. They just seem to suck at executing them. And specifically, at evolving and supporting them.
Why do you think that is?
I suspect it’s cultural - maybe starting new apps is seen as more desirable than making existing apps better.
And if you keep starting new apps you can’t keep iterating/updating/maintaining all the old ones too without spreading your engineering talent too thinly.
Google’s internal culture, at least from the outside, doesn’t seem to be one that often releases a bad product and iterates it into a good one - sometimes they do, but with most either it gets lots of interest/users from day 1 of general release or it’s quickly abandoned.
Re: Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app in favor of Google Assistant
#53That's... well. Sometimes, timing is bad. I own a 2010 Mazda 6, which comes with bluetooth, but has no display whatsoever. I installed a custom head unit with Apple Car Play. Unfortunately, this head unit became unresponsive every once in a while, and only restarting the car would help. That annoyed the hell out of me. So I went back to the stock experience (it's BOSE after all), and tried to playback audio over blue…
I haven't ordered it yet, but found this 'portable' CarPlay device interesting. I uses wired CarPlay, but I'm ok with that. https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/01/26/review-car-and-dr...
That was also on my list, but at the time I was searching for it, I was only able to buy it in Asia. Seemed as if all stock in Europe somehow ”disappeared“
Re: Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app in favor of Google Assistant
#54Just in case some people are confused: There are two different things with the same name - - Android Auto vehicle communication technology that mirrors your phone's screen to a vehicle's head unit. - Android Auto phone app that displays the same interface on your phone's screen like a normal app (e.g. mount your phone up high and use directly, or use some other screen mirroring technology to send it to the head unit)…
The fact that the situation exists where Google has two products that do the same thing and one of them has the same name as another of their products that does something different is just bad news overall. It's great that this specific instance will be resolved soon but are Google, as an organisation, learning any broader lessons at all?
It basically like having a responsive website that works with both mobile/desktop web. But in this case it's mobile/auto interface. Not really two different products, just maintaining two different UIs built using the same underlying language and core system.
They probably just measured how much people with new devices are using the phone version + projected 3-4yrs into the future and saw it declining even further (it'd probably take about ~2yrs for the release to hit mainstream).
Then evaluated whether it was worth slowing down product development and new releases to support two UI versions.
It could be better for customers in the end as the number of used cars without a screen dwindles each year and they can improve the product quicker.
The other question is what Apple is doing...
Re: Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app in favor of Google Assistant
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google has tons of other good ideas. They just seem to suck at executing them. And specifically, at evolving and supporting them.
Why do you think that is?
I worked there 11 1/2 years.
An engineer gets promotion from "having impact." Improving an existing app is usually not enough impact. Replacing it with some shiny new thing is. Once it's out there, you ideally transfer to something else where you can also have impact, or you quit & join an outside company.
As many people have pointed out, your own manager cannot promote you; only the Promotion Committee can (although your manager can certainly help).
Re: Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app in favor of Google Assistant
#56Figured this was coming once I saw they were duplicating features from Android Auto in Google Maps. Only thing I really hate about this change is that Maps' driving mode doesn't currently let you do anything until you enter a destination. So until I tell Maps where I'm going I can't even play music over Bluetooth. Android Auto also starts automatically when I turn on my car, whereas Google Maps doesn't, but I suppose…
This is the big problem. It wouldn't be bad if they replaced products with products that are already fully baked; but the fact that start automatically when connected to Bluetooth isn't already there, that the music apps don't show playlists in Driving Assistant but do in Android Auto, and that there is no touchscreen UI for selecting a music app makes this needlessly frustrating.
It happens every time. YouTube Music didn't have critical functionality fron Google Play Music when the latter's deprecation was annoyed, and Google Chat is still missing functionality from Google Hangouts.
Re: Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app in favor of Google Assistant
#57Just in case some people are confused: There are two different things with the same name - - Android Auto vehicle communication technology that mirrors your phone's screen to a vehicle's head unit. - Android Auto phone app that displays the same interface on your phone's screen like a normal app (e.g. mount your phone up high and use directly, or use some other screen mirroring technology to send it to the head unit)…
I'd rather the first be discontinued, since I've never been able to get it to work properly. I've since got a gooseneck phone holder that holds my phone up over my car's AA screen, and use the second instead. Oh well, I suppose I'm not shocked by this decision.
Fwiw, it works great in my 2017 Volvo.
Re: Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app in favor of Google Assistant
#58Just in case some people are confused: There are two different things with the same name - - Android Auto vehicle communication technology that mirrors your phone's screen to a vehicle's head unit. - Android Auto phone app that displays the same interface on your phone's screen like a normal app (e.g. mount your phone up high and use directly, or use some other screen mirroring technology to send it to the head unit)…
The fact that the situation exists where Google has two products that do the same thing and one of them has the same name as another of their products that does something different is just bad news overall. It's great that this specific instance will be resolved soon but are Google, as an organisation, learning any broader lessons at all?
[deleted]
Re: Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app in favor of Google Assistant
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think that is?
I suspect it’s cultural - maybe starting new apps is seen as more desirable than making existing apps better. And if you keep starting new apps you can’t keep iterating/updating/maintaining all the old ones too without spreading your engineering talent too thinly. Google’s internal culture, at least from the outside, doesn’t seem to be one that often releases a bad product and iterates it into a good one - sometimes…
Google culture seems to be : they release a bad product and they make it worse. Android Auto is crap. Never worked
Re: Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app in favor of Google Assistant
#60That's... well. Sometimes, timing is bad. I own a 2010 Mazda 6, which comes with bluetooth, but has no display whatsoever. I installed a custom head unit with Apple Car Play. Unfortunately, this head unit became unresponsive every once in a while, and only restarting the car would help. That annoyed the hell out of me. So I went back to the stock experience (it's BOSE after all), and tried to playback audio over blue…
>bluetooth will start skipping parts of the track, or will playback with a faster speed after a while
Sorry for laughing, but this is tech comedy gold :D