3 Android Auto Features That Can Make an Older Car Feel New

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You can easily update any car to use Android Auto. Similar to using your smartphone as the main screen in your car, you can now also use your old tablet as the Android Auto headunit using the Open Headunit app or a dedicated Android Auto smart display to fill that role, like the $120 Volam 11″ Wireless CarPlay Display. You can connect your phone to this display via Bluetooth or USB to use Android Auto like a typical infotainment system, and you can even control your car’s audio system if you Plug either display into your car’s AUX audio jack.

Rest assured, even when you connect a third-party display to your car for power and sound, you can still connect it wirelessly to your phone for hands-free convenience. Yes, updating your car’s hardware requires an investment. However, you can still get the edge instead of installing a whole new entertainment system that can easily cost $500 or more because smart displays are more affordable and can be plugged in outside rather than expensively installed inside your dashboard.

Once you plug such a display into your car, all the revolutionary features of modern Android Auto, such as real-time navigation, hands-free voice commands and even in-app streaming, are now available at your leisure. By adding modern conveniences to a space where they didn’t exist before, these three Android Auto features can help eliminate the feeling that your dashboard is aging by making your old car look new. Best of all, such a setup is inexpensive to upgrade, much more so than an integrated infotainment system that manufacturers often abandon after a few years, leaving you in control of your hardware and software and not the other way around.

Once you install an Android Auto screen in your car to connect from your phone, wired or wireless, you take control of the platform, bringing features like real-time traffic and navigation to your dashboard. No matter if you are a Google Maps user or prefer Waze, with their Android Auto support you can enjoy real-time turn-by-turn navigation as well as user traffic reports, which are two of the main reasons why these two map apps are so popular, now fully functional in your old car using a third-party display.

So instead of printing maps like people did with MapQuest because your old car didn’t offer an Android Auto-compatible screen, you can take advantage of the modern convenience of real-time navigation to plot your route. You can then watch this data transmit to your newly installed screen so you can head to your destination in modern style. This is why Google Maps is an essential Android Auto app to install. Even if your car was built with an older navigation system, it often requires manual updates and probably no longer receives them. Even if updates exist, why waste time dealing with old technology and manual software installations when you can easily install a supported display on your dashboard and use modern Android map apps that receive frequent updates and lots of new features?

This way, you and your old car can live a modern life with live reroutes and traffic alerts, so you can stay on schedule, with a big screen showing where you are at all times, rather than squinting at small text on your phone or manually setting up an outdated navigation system.

Even if your old car is lucky enough to house a factory navigation system in your dashboard, back in the day, these systems required very specific voice commands to function properly, if they supported voice commands to begin with (many don’t). Or maybe your car has never contained sophisticated electronics in the dashboard. Either way, the main problem is the same: your car feels outdated without the convenience of voice commands.

This is where Android Auto comes in, via a third-party screen installed on your dashboard. Just like with real-time traffic and navigation, once you have a supported display that can handle Android Auto through a connection to your phone, you can start enjoying its best and brightest features, like hands-free voice commands and Assistant access, with the benefit of split-screen support for managing directions and other apps at the same time, like Spotify or your favorite messaging app.

So instead of fiddling with a touchscreen or picking up your connected phone, you can simply speak commands to get things done, making it one of the many Android Auto features that can make long trips easier. You can do this with conversational language, allowing you to speak naturally to Android Auto, whether you’re asking directions, making a shopping list, or simply want to call a friend or family member. You can even ask your assistant to read your messages aloud so you can handle incoming notifications hands-free. With voice commands at your fingertips, you can stay safer without taking your eyes off the road or your hands off the wheel, which is indeed a modern convenience worth adding to any older car to make it feel like new.

Android Auto can integrate all kinds of streaming apps, like YouTube Music and Spotify, and with a dedicated Android Auto screen you can connect your phone wirelessly or via USB. From there, the screen goes straight to your vehicle’s audio system, whether through an AUX jack, Bluetooth, a radio transmitter, or even an old-fashioned tape recorder adapter. In other words, you have countless options for connecting an Android Auto display to your car’s audio system. You can then go hands-free with your phone connection, not only for voice commands and Assistant access (above), but also to control your streamed tunes, like navigating a playlist or skipping tracks.

Even if your car offers an older built-in screen, you still get the benefit of a newer dedicated screen with a rich interface that can split the screen to control two apps simultaneously, like apps for maps and music, but it’s also a large, dedicated screen to ensure things stay readable while driving – something that older, smaller infotainment systems from decades ago simply can’t compete with. Not only does this make it easier to view your screen, but it also offers large touch controls so you don’t have to hunt and peck while driving, which is handy for changing tracks if voice commands aren’t your thing.

Overall, Android Auto’s built-in streaming support is easily one of its best features, especially if you want to bring your old car into modern times. Instead of fumbling with your phone or an aging center console, Android Auto’s streaming support and dedicated screen can make your old car feel new with minimal investment.