Tag: Android 11

Starting with Android 11 later this year, all phones will soon be able to connect wirelessly to compatible cars with Android Auto.

Over two years ago, Google finally made it possible for Android Auto to connect wirelessly instead of needing to be connected via USB to your car stereo. However, the wireless capabilities have so far only been available on Google’s Pixel phones and Samsung Galaxy phones.

Today, Google has updated their support page for Android Auto that describes what countries Android Auto can be used in and what devices are required to use Android Auto wirelessly. Above the usual description of which phones on Android 10 and Android Pie are compatible, Google has added a new note stating that “Any smartphone with Android 11.0″ can use Android Auto wirelessly.

Pretty clearly, that means any Android phone from the likes of LG, Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, etc that release on or get updated to Android 11 will be able to enjoy connecting wirelessly to their car/stereo with Android Auto. Interestingly, that should also mean that Android One — though not Android Go — phones would be able to use Android Auto wirelessly once their Android 11 update arrives.

The only major restriction is that your phone must be able to connect to 5GHz WiFi networks. Google also specifically notes for EU residents that your phone may still be incompatible even with Android 11, as the EU has specific requirements for 5GHz being used in your car. Similarly, folks in prohibited countries like Japan and Russia will still be unable to use Android Auto wirelessly.

The update comes as automotive OEMs like BMW finally begin to put wireless Android Auto support into more of their vehicles. Now we just need more companies to follow suit so more of us can leave the USB-C cord behind.

Android 11 has a lot of changes for good, but as we approach release some minor changes are starting to come to light that some users won’t be very happy with. Starting in Android 11, for instance, users won’t be able to select a default camera app in certain scenarios.

On an official issue tracker thread, Google confirmed (via Android Police) that Android 11 is ditching the default camera app selector. Instead of being able to download a third-party camera app from the Play Store and use that as a complete replacement, users will be stuck with whatever is pre-loaded on their device in many scenarios.

Default apps have been a core part of Android for a while with users able to tell the system what homescreen, email, browser, and various other apps they want to use for specific actions. Honestly, we’re shocked Google is limiting this, but the company says its reasoning is that this move will help “protect the privacy and security” of Android users.

Here’s the good news, though. This doesn’t apply everywhere. When apps on your smartphone want to pull from the camera, they’ll be forced to use the stock camera app on your devices. Examples for this include the likes of Reddit, Google Keep, and countless others. Instagram, Twitter, and others, though, would still be able to use their built-in camera apps.

However, hardware shortcuts like the handy double-tap power button will still allow you to select a default camera app as usual. Personally, that’s the big deal for me.

I can still set a default camera app on Android 11 when using Pixel’s double-tap shortcut

Still, despite that good news, it’s likely that this will either lengthen or break the workflows of some apps.

Google hasn’t listed exact reasons why they’re making this change, but it’s not super difficult to imagine where apps could potentially have abused this functionality in the past. It’s also unclear at the moment if this will be a required change in Android 11 on all devices or if OEMs will be able to modify it.