Google is killing Android Auto for phones (if you even know what that is)

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  “Android Auto for phone screens” had an Android Auto-like UI, but it ran directly on the phone screen. [credit:
  Google ]

Google is killing Android Auto. No, not that Android Auto.

Google is shutting down “Android Auto for phone screens,” which was an Android Auto offshoot for people who didn’t have cars compatible with the service. 9to5Google confirmed the cancellation with Google, and XDA Developers spotted a shutdown message in the app pushing users to a newer Google car computing solution for phone screens: “Google Assistant driving mode.” As usual, we have many similarly named Google projects to keep track of, so don’t get confused!

The thing most people think about when they hear “Android Auto” is the projected car interface (a competitor to Apple’s CarPlay), which loads a custom Google UI onto a vehicle’s infotainment screen. You just need an Android phone and a compatible car; plug the two together, and the interface starts up. (I like to think of this system as being similar to a desktop PC. The phone is the PC tower and does software and computing, and the car is the monitor.) Android Auto is not going anywhere.