These car accessories and digital car modules have helped a lot of drivers stay connected, but it is still pretty much dangerous, as you can get easily distracted with other screens in front of you. But the recently-released Android Auto platform says that it can help users still stay focused while driving, while letting you still be connected to your messages, emails, and other important things you need to take care off while you’re on your way somewhere.
Once you’ve connected your smartphone (remember, it needs to be running on Android 5.0 and above) to the platform, Android Auto will take control of your messages, even as they’re still running on your app. You won’t get a preview of the messages you receive (stop looking at your dashboard!) because the unread messages will be read back to you by text to speech features. However, you’d have to tap on the message notification so there’s still a dangerous split-second when you take your eyes off the road. Better do it when you’re stopped at traffic intersections or something.
You get to reply to these messages through voice controls though, so that’s a great thing and a less hazardous way than typing while driving. One of the best things, for developers at least, about Android Auto is that it’s easy to incorporate these features onto your app, with just a few lines of code, nothing too complicated.
Hopefully, this will be incentive enough for developers to enable their messaging apps for the Android Auto platform, even if it’s still relatively new. You can learn more about how to do this by visiting developer.android.com/auto.
SOURCE: Android Developers Blog
