Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Android Auto is testing a redesigned dashboard media card with centered album artwork and a blurred background.
- The brand new structure can add further controls, comparable to like, shuffle, and repeat, relying on the music app.
- Whether or not these further buttons seem relies on the pinnacle unit’s show.
Google introduced a broad Android Auto makeover at I/O 2026, and a few of these adjustments are actually starting to succeed in drivers. For instance, simply right now we noticed that Google Maps’ new Immersive Navigation interface seems to be slowly rolling out, bringing 3D buildings and clearer street options to the dashboard. We’ve now discovered one other visible replace that wasn’t clearly proven in Google’s I/O announcement supplies: a redesigned media card for the Android Auto dashboard.
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We managed to activate the brand new structure in a latest model of Android Auto. The present dashboard card makes use of the album paintings as a full-size background, with the music particulars and playback controls layered over it. It already contains Google’s newer squiggly progress bar and up to date buttons, which started rolling out extra extensively earlier this 12 months. You’ll be able to see examples of the present and doubtlessly new playing cards within the two photos under.
The revised card provides the album paintings a extra standard dwelling within the middle, whereas its colours are used to create a blurred background. The music title and artist additionally transfer beneath the paintings and are centered, making the entire card look much less busy than the present model.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
Because the picture above exhibits, the redesign may add extra playback controls to the dashboard card. Relying on the music app, these can embrace buttons comparable to like, shuffle, and repeat. Whether or not you really see them will even rely in your head unit’s show density, with bigger or higher-DPI screens in a position to match the additional controls. In these layouts, the play/pause button strikes right into a extra central place.
This alteration solely impacts the media card proven alongside navigation on the Android Auto dashboard. Opening the media app in full-screen mode nonetheless brings up the prevailing participant interface.
As with all function uncovered in an APK teardown, this redesign is probably going nonetheless a piece in progress, so Google might change the design additional or determine to not launch it. That stated, given the sooner announcement and the course Google advised the app would take, this alteration is one which’s more likely to seem sooner moderately than later.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict options which will arrive on a service sooner or later primarily based on work-in-progress code. Nevertheless, it’s potential that such predicted options might not make it to a public launch.
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