Google is graduating game support on Android Auto from a limited beta to broad availability, allowing developers to bring games to your car’s display.
First available last year, games in Android Auto and Android Automotive bring a bit of interactive fun to the car’s display. While there’s no direct integration with things like the car’s steering wheel, it’s a nice way to add something fun to the biggest screen in your vehicle for times you might be stuck on the side of the road, waiting on an EV to charge, or other times where the vehicle is not moving.
Around 30 games are available on Android Auto today, but that list is likely to start expanding soon.
Googleannounced this week that game support on Android Auto is no longer in beta, meaning that game support is open to all developers rather than requiring specific approval from Google.
Bringing your game to cars lets you reach users in their vehicles during natural downtime, such as while waiting at a charging station or for a curbside order pickup. Today’s milestone means that we’re opening up access so developers can now publish games to the open testing and production tracks on Google Play. In this post, we’ll cover how to adapt your existing Android game for the car screen, focusing on key technical requirements and publishing criteria.
Android games must declare support for Android Auto and Android Automotive OS – they’re separate declarations behind the scenes, and there are many more games that support Android Automotive without Android Auto support as it stands today.
Games on Android Auto should be able to adapt to different display sizes and need to recognize when a vehicle is parked or not – games can only be played if the vehicle is parked. Games can also support controllers on Android Auto and Android Automotive.
Google’s full documentation on what developers need to do can be found here.
More on Android Auto:
- Android Auto update might fix cellular signal icon – is it back for you?
- Android Auto update lets you customize your Google Maps ‘driving avatar’ via car display
- GM just found the ‘sweet spot’ for supporting Android Auto & CarPlay [Gallery]
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