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For those of you who frequent using Android Auto, Google has now announced several improvements to its media and messaging features that will be rolling out over the next several days.
New ways to discover media
If driving in silence isn't for you, playing and finding media just got easier. By bringing content to the forefront of your screen, you can now spend less time browsing and more time enjoying the content you like most. An improved layout, featuring large album art views, lets you quickly identify and select something to play. Got something specific in mind? We've also made improvements to the voice search experience. Just say "OK Google, play 80s music" or "OK Google, play Lilt" to view even more categorized search results from your app right on the screen.
More options for messaging
As you're driving, you don't have to worry about missing important messages—you can now safely stay connected with multiple people at once. When messages arrive, Android Auto can show you a short preview of the text when your vehicle is stopped. This message previewing capability is purely optional (enabled via Android Auto's settings menu), giving you the ability to choose what's most important—privacy or convenience. In addition to SMS messaging, Android Auto now supports apps that use MMS (multimedia messaging service) and RCS (rich communication services). This means that your favorite messaging apps can now offer additional capabilities, like support for group messaging.
Google notes the new features have been enabled in apps such as Google Play Books, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, Pocket Casts and Spotify. For the new messaging features, Messages, Hangouts and WhatsApp are currently enabled and over the coming months, Google will be working to add even more compatible apps to the list. The updates will be coming to the Android Auto app and in-car experiences.
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