Google Caught Working on a Big Change for Android Auto Coolwalk

Despite the mixed opinions, weather data in Android Auto eventually became a must-have tool that went through several transformations.

The most recent took place when Google rolled out the Coolwalk treatment, as the company integrated the current temperature and conditions into a dedicated weather card.

The information is only available on portrait screens, while landscape head units can't show weather data because of the limited screen estate.

Google has already promised to bring this essential information to all users, and now it looks like the work in this regard is advancing, with the search giant moving a step closer to enabling the weather card for everybody.

Weather information on Android Auto

The original version of Android Auto displayed weather conditions and the current temperature in a dedicated widget on the home screen. It was an approach that everybody loved, as Android Auto displayed weather data right after launch.

Android Auto evolved, and so did the weather information, so when Google released the first big redesign in 2019, the temperature and condition icons were moved to the status bar at the top of the screen.

In many ways, this new approach made a lot more sense. By showing weather details in the top right corner, Android Auto used the available screen estate for more important things like apps. At the same time, weather data in the top right corner just made sense, as this is an approach that's also used on other devices, such as mobile and PCs.

Now that the Coolwalk redesign is available, the weather feature went through another transformation, so it's no longer displayed in the top right corner.

The Coolwalk redesign

Coolwalk allows users to run multiple apps on the same screen using cards compared to the previous versions. The interface is split into multiple cards, and essential apps, such as navigation and audio players, get their own cards.

Google killed off the status bar at the top of the screen, so the weather data had to move somewhere else. Contrary to most people's expectations, Google didn’t transfer it to the taskbar at the bottom (where the current time and signal strength are displayed) but created a dedicated card just for weather data.

Needless to say, having a special card for weather information is a waste of screen estate, and Google itself figured this out. The card is available only on portrait screens, whereas landscape head units don't display weather data at all.

This strategy has obviously caused much frustration in the Android Auto user community, especially as landscape head units are more common than those using a portrait aspect ratio.

Now it looks like Google is working on fixing this.

We've known for a while that the Mountain View-based search giant has been working on enabling the weather experience on all Android Auto Coolwalk devices, but it appears we're getting closer to the moment when things get back to normal.

Android Auto 9.6, which is now rolling out to production devices, comes with a new flag to enable the weather card on all screens. The flag is still in its early days, so it can't be activated just yet, but it's probably just a matter of time until it appears in private beta builds.

It's unclear how Google resolved this shortcoming, as enabling a weather card on a landscape head unit could make the interface more cluttered.

By default, a landscape aspect ratio shows the navigation app (be it Google Maps, Waze, or another alternative), the music app, and active phone calls. As such, there's simply not enough space on the screen to insert a weather card, so it'll certainly be interesting to see how the whole thing will work eventually.

The search giant has remained tight-lipped on its plans so far, but given the flag was spotted by Reddit user shmykelsa in the stable version of Android Auto, we may not be too far from the moment the production release starts.

In the meantime, Google also continues the Coolwalk rollout. Started in January, Coolwalk is the biggest Android Auto update in history, but it's shipped to devices out there in waves. Google uses a server-controlled rollout to activate the new feature because it wants to closely monitor reliability data. As such, the interface is enabled only on devices with very low likelihood of bugs. The company did not share an ETA as to when it plans to complete the rollout, but all Android Auto users should get access to Coolwalk by the end of the summer.

If you're still running the old version of the app, you can do nothing to enable Coolwalk, as it all depends on Google's server-side switch.