I kinda want to tbh, seems like an interesting project, but the whole thing seems really complicated and I might hit a road block with client certification.
You can probably just disable auto updates for Android Auto and the apps you use with it, but inevitably things will start breaking, like Play Services APIs that Android Auto relies on, or the APIs those older third-party apps you use rely on.
It sucks, but it was kinda inevitable for a system that has so many moving parts.
A forced nag screen “please buy a new phone to continue” seems shitty, can’t they just stop targeting that specific android version instead of bricking the functionality with an automatic update?
I don’t see the issue of using an older version of Android auto on an older phone, just stop getting new features…
What's getting yanked is that older phones won't connect to Android Auto enabled vehicles if the phone is running Android Nougat. It must be Running Android Oreo or later.
For those not remembering, Nougat was released in 2016 and went out of support in 2019. By the most recent metric (Dec. 2022) about 4% of all Android devices currently run Nougat. So this will affect all fifteen of the people still running this OS.
Most devices that were originally sold with Nougat have an upgrade path to Oreo. The bigger problem is folks who purchased devices with Marshmallow (orig. 2015) or Lollipop (orig. 2014) who stopped receiving upgrades past Nougat. These are the devices that will most likely be impacted by this change.
Personally, I like to keep my devices for at least five years, so them deprecating 2016 and earlier is okay with me.
What’s this is version numbers? I don’t know if this whimsical naming thing works for other brains but between android, debian, R, etc, etc, it no longer registers for me…
We need to get to a point where smartphone work for more than 5 years. Hardware wise the battery is the only part that is guaranteed to need to be replaced.
Now whether they do it by stopping the race on Android version or supporting every device is up to them.
Desktop OS (Windows or Linux) support any version as long as the PC is powerful enough. Why on phone we’re limited not by the capabilities of the CPU but its release date?
Desktop OS (Windows or Linux) support any version as long as the PC is powerful enough.
Windows 10 will stop being supported next year, and Windows 11 can’t be installed on old computers without regedit trickery.
32bit support was cut from most Linux distros.
So while it’s true that desktop hardware is supported a lot longer, it’s not supported indefinitely.
The issue is they probably want to change serverside stuff without caring about the old stuff and the alternative to the update and it’s prompt is that it will simply crash, show errors, hang or whatever…
I don’t really see what server side stuff an app on the dashboard of a car would need. Their Google Maps API works all the way back to the one installed with Android 2, and failing that users can install a number of navigation apps. Same with their music app (they already killed Play Music anyway).
The only thing I can think of is that they’d be killing Google Assistant on old phones, but that wouldn’t mean the rest of Android Auto couldn’t still work.
This makes no sense to me. How do these two devices that are currently working together stop functioning? Does it require updating/auto updating the software on your phone to kill it? Seems ridiculous.
Or is this saying newer head units installed in cars might require a newer version of Android Auto that won’t work on an older phone OS?
This looks to be Google ending support for the Android Auto framework on older Android versions, that’s all. It’s not about the car, it’s about the phone.
Adding on to a bit from your comment that I missed, it’s not affecting the car itself. The article should have used the word “phone” instead of “device”.
All Android Auto is a screen for your phone that also hooks into car buttons. Your phone does all the hard work with projecting data to the screen. If your phone is too old, Android Auto might not work because apps don’t work properly with the base framework by Google.
You can use a new phone on an older car that officially supports Auto/CarPlay. That’s never been a problem.
If you don’t update Android Auto, maybe. Apps still rely on the framework that makes it work, so you are likely to have those break if they use features that Android Auto didn’t have at the update freeze.
The version they’re cutting off is really old, relatively speaking. You have to be on Oreo or later (8.0+), which came out in 2017.
Many apps you would use Android Auto will likely bump up to this break point soon. Waze, for example, is 7.0+. You’re bound to run into issues being on Nougat or earlier soon, if not already.
I mean, Android Auto runs on your phone and just transmits the video/audio to your car so yeah. It’s just like any other app dropping support for older versions of the OS.
Software updates and eventually you have to stop supporting older versions of Android. Apps do it all the time. Dropping support for Android 7.0 going into 2024 seems reasonable (it’s only a couple percent of the total market).
I think a combination. Newer cars will require newer phones, older cars probably won’t support newer phones. If I had an older car I may keep an old phone and hotspot it or something.
Are you using a phone from 2017 or earlier? If not, you have nothing to worry about. If so, I’m surprised it still works.
The article topic only affects phones with Android Nougat and earlier. If you’re on Oreo or later (8.0+), you’re fine. This has nothing to do with the car and everything to do with the phone doing the screen projection.
Judging by the article and the code snippets found, it’s more about updating your phone rather than the car infotainment hub. Nougat is getting the axe, have to be on Oreo or later.
It would have been better if the headline said “phones” and not “devices”, but that’s not as panic inducing :P
Yeah, but the problem is Android Auto is a closed system. There’s no reason my phone can’t display an app or play plex music while providing directions.
It’s the same kind of deprecation you get with apps requiring a newer Android version. If Google adds new features to Android Auto that Android Nougat (7.x) can’t handle, then your apps won’t have any better time either. Likewise, if Google updates Android Auto but an app stops supporting 7.x and earlier, then that app will certainly break down the road.
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