Cars in today's era are high-tech and feature far fewer buttons than they used to. Instead, a large tablet sits in the center, with few or no buttons. Ideally, there should be dedicated buttons for car controls, everything is now housed inside the tablet.
The tablet can not only be used to control essential car features but also run various apps via Android Auto or Android Automotive. You can use navigation apps or music streaming apps to have a pleasant driving experience.
However, since the center console in today's cars is pretty much a tablet, it should also be able to run standard apps that you would usually run on a normal Android tablet. Google has the same idea, and it could soon start highlighting apps in the Play Store that are compatible with tablets and cars.
In a fresh APK Teardown post, a string has been spotted in the Google Play Store v43.0.18-31 that will make it easier for users to identify apps optimized for cars. Here is the string:
This app was designed for tablets and is compatible with your car.
Do note that features spotted in APK Teardown may or may not make it to the final stable release. These are only predicted features.
As noted by Android Authority, this could be a part of Google's Car-ready mobile apps program that was announced back at the Google I/O 2024 event. Google could bring more apps to cars based on three tiers:
Tier 1: Car differentiated
This tier represents the best of what’s possible in cars. Apps in this tier are specifically built to work across the variety of hardware in cars and can adapt their experience across driving and parked modes. They provide the best user experience designed for the different screens in the car like the center console, instrument cluster and additional screens - like panoramic displays that we see in many premium vehicles.
Tier 2: Car optimized
Most apps available in cars today fall into this tier and provide a great experience on the car’s center stack display. These apps will have some car-specific engineering to include capabilities that can be used across driving or parked modes, depending on the app’s category.
Tier 3: Car ready
Apps in this tier are large screen compatible and are enabled while the car is parked, with potentially no additional work. While these apps may not have car-specific features, users can experience the app just as they would on any large screen Android device.
The new apps may be bundled under the Tier-3 "Car ready" program that brings tablet-optimized apps over to cars. So, this would eliminate the barrier for developers such that apps developed for tablets, can also be used in a parked car with a supported screen.
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