Android Auto 14.0 Releases In Beta With Prep For Defrost Buttons, Maps Alert Controls

Google has released the first Android Auto 14.0 update through its beta program and while there are no major user-facing changes, code behind the scenes continues work on temperature controls.

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

As we first reported earlier this month, Google added strings in Android Auto 13.9 (which is now rolling out widely to all users) which suggested some form of temperature controls as a native feature of Android Auto. The context in which those controls would be added is not yet clear, but Android Auto 14.0 continues work on this.

Strings added in Android Auto 14.0 include front and rear defrost toggles, which are not live in the actual app yet.

FRONT
REAR

This latest update also suggests Google is working on an option to control alerts from Maps in Android Auto, specifically referring to incident reports. This appears to be preparing a new “Alerts” section in the settings menu which would possibly have a toggle for incident reports.

Alerts
Get alerts for reported incidents and other conditions that may impact your drive

Google faced some criticism following the rollout of incident reports on Android Auto and CarPlay due to their somewhat intrusive design, so this toggle could be aiming to solve that. Without the feature live, though, it’s hard to say for certain.

Android Auto 14.0 will likely be released to the stable track, and in turn all users, in the next couple of weeks, though an exact timeline is hard to pin down. Since there’s nothing directly user-facing in the update, though, it’s likely that Google is using this to patch other ongoing bugs or prepare to launch other new features.