It seems that Android Auto is stopping support for older phones with the forced update.
Android Auto has been around for about 10 years and has been running on all phones for quite some time. After quietly increasing requirements in early 2022, it appears Google has basically stopped using Android Auto on older phones forcing them to a forced update.
Google quietly confirmed in early 2022 that Android Auto-enabled smartphones will need to at least upgrade to Android 8.0 (Oreo) or later versions.
That requirement for future updates is perfectly reasonable, but Google seems to be taking it one step further.
A forced update
Some Android Auto users, in recent weeks, have noticed that yes with the previous version of the app start a popup which indicates that an update is required in order to move forward and continue to use the application.
This ‘problem’ seems to only happen with versions of Android Auto from 7.0 to 7.7. It seems reasonable to assume that this is part of preparing for the change of a major new project that Android is working on, the “Coolwalk“, arriving perhaps relatively soon.
The problem of this missing update
As users describe, the popup that appears on the app stays there with no option to remove it and does not disappear until it updates the app Android Auto. Only once updated will it be possible to unlock the launch of the platform on your car screen.
This will prevent users with older Android phones from using Android 6.0 And Android 7.0 to be able to use Android Auto. This because Android Auto 7.4 is the latest version compatible with Oreo and older versions. In addition, another side effect is that people signed up for Waze will be forced to use versions with problems and bugs.
In the last months, Waze for Android Auto has encountered issues with showing a blank screen for some people, as opposed to the latest version of Android Auto 7.7 which has absolutely no issues. A forced update appears to be in the works, leaving users with no choice but to use the latest version of the app that seems to be causing this problem.
Starting from May 2022Android 7.0 and earlier versions represent the 15% fewer than total Android distributions, so this shouldn’t be a problem for most people using Android Auto.
L’latest version of Android Autothe 8.0, was released in August this year. But as we said earlier, it seems that there is already talk of a major new project called Coolwalk. This new project can completely change the platform. We don’t have a specific release date yet, but they’re said to be working on this new development and it’s progressing well, so we may find out more very soon.
