In addition to iOS 26 and a plethora of other preview updates to WWDC earlier this week, Apple has also shown new improvements to Carplay that seem familiar, mainly because they want to bring the original Android experience to the modern era.
THE New Carplay experience in iOS 26 Bring a lot of upgrades, but those who attracted my attention immediately were the arrival of live activities and widgets. With these, drivers get information about glutot and timely in their car without having to open applications or, worse, take their real phones.
This is the promise that Android Auto sold 10 years ago, but has long been abandoned.
When Android Auto made its debut in 2014, the platform was very different from what we have today. Instead of focusing on applications and a dashboard, Google has designed the experience as simple as possible. Navigation, telephone and music were seated through the lower bar for quick and easy access, with a “home screen” that has been powered by Google now. You might see minimized instructions, weather, music and timely Calendar and Gmail information. Simple, proactive and not distracting. It was an excellent idea, but that Google deleted in 2019 for an experience focused on applications that has since evolved to look more and more like Carplay.
Personally, I have long been frustrated by Google’s decision to follow Apple on its car and smartwatch experiences. The proactive and simple conceptions of Android Auto and Wear OS “Back in the Day” were ahead of their time, and it often seems that time is only a circle with Google by constantly playing the catch -up. Google throws an idea only for Apple to pick it up much later, and Google to reinvent it.
This cycle is repeated here with Carplay and Android Auto.
Live activities and widgets are not quite the same as what Android Auto was doing when it was launched, but they take these same ideas and bring them to the modern era. This is exactly what Android Auto should have done all this time. There are songs in the current experience that have the impression of being built by these older days, such as when you automatically treat cards according to your calendar, but they are so rare.
As mentioned, Google will likely come back to this type of proactive information over time, and this is an area that I could actually see the useful Gemini. Carplay widgets are also a great idea for Android Auto, although it should probably take a different form.
But in the meantime, I am back to wish that Google had not rushed to copy Apple when he actually had something good in itself.
What do you think?
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