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 additional controls, akin to like, shuffle, and repeat, relying on the music app.
- Whether or not these further buttons seem will depend 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 at present 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 art work 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 broadly earlier this yr. You may see examples of the present and doubtlessly new playing cards within the two photos under.
The revised card provides the album art work a extra typical house within the middle, whereas its colours are used to create a blurred background. The music title and artist additionally transfer beneath the art work 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 also add extra playback controls to the dashboard card. Relying on the music app, these can embrace buttons akin to like, shuffle, and repeat. Whether or not you truly see them may 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 modification 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 present participant interface.
As with every function uncovered in an APK teardown, this redesign is probably going nonetheless a piece in progress, so Google could change the design additional or resolve to not launch it. That mentioned, given the sooner announcement and the path Google steered the app would take, this alteration is one which’s more likely to seem sooner somewhat than later.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict options which will arrive on a service sooner or later based mostly on work-in-progress code. Nevertheless, it’s doable that such predicted options could not make it to a public launch.
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