Some Spring in your Dashboard’s Step: 5 of Today’s Best Android Auto Apps

A close look at many of Today’s cars reveals Android Auto’s popularity, and the rising interest among drivers of phone projection support while shopping for an upgrade. Apple’s annual stats also reflect this trend, as the successful iPhone maker reports that over 3/4 of new car buyers in the U.S. have CarPlay at the top of their list for must-haves. This also validates the same stance for Android Auto, as cars that support CarPlay also are equipped with support for Google’s app. For drivers with Android devices, this feature on the best Android Auto Apps was designed for you!

5 of Today’s Best Android Auto Apps:

When you first fire up Android Auto, it comes with a pre-loaded arsenal that gets you by with some fairly souped-up basics. Google Maps handles navigation duty, and YouTube provides the tunes. Google Assistant is available to take the reins for hands-free interaction too. Much like the excitement a brand-new smartphone in your hands provides, today’s driver is always eager to find features above and beyond the norm. Here are five of the coolest applications that you’ve got to try to enhance your driving experience!

Waze

This very useful app is the result of crowd-sourced navigation that sets out to make it easier to avoid congestion and bad roads. The integration is based on a teeming collective of map editors, beta testers, translators, and savvy users to assist each other in the task of driving better. They have done an excellent job of partnering with cities, transportation authorities, broadcasters, businesses, and emergency personnel to be as successful as possible.

Waze excels so greatly in that users band together to flag certain locations for potential trouble. Instances just as large snafus, traffic jams, roadkill, and potholes for example. Waze also already supports the Coolwalk interface, so you can use it simultaneously alongside your other favorites with the multi-app view option. This is also a very easy app to use in conjunction with Spotify, so you can properly rock out while keeping your own bird’s eye on things.

Tidal:

Tidal is an excellent alternative as a means of getting your in-drive music. Its most impressive quality is its grade of audio, as it supports up to 9216 kbps audio within its HiFi Plus tier. There are over 100 million songs to keep you busy, along with an ad-free choice and ability to act offline. If you opt for a subscription, you can skip as many songs as you want. You can also join a live session hosted by one of your favorite music personalities or DJs.

WeatherRadar:

We understand that some quick errands don’t require much more than a decent navigation tool and a music app. It’s amazing to think about where we were just around a decade and a half ago, as everything has now become so accessible and fast. WeatherRadar provides users with very up-to-date information directly from the dashboard and offers enough cool features to make even a meteorologist in training give it a thumbs-up!

Once you launch this twister-pinpointing bundle of genius, it determines and keeps track of your location, while displaying the temperature directly on the map. You can also see detailed data for nearby locations, and if you zoom out you can look at the weather conditions for your entire region. As you are headed to your destination, you can quickly glance at color-coded info, with blue indicating potential precipitation on its way.

Pocket Casts:

The popularity of podcasts has been skyrocketing, as it’s not just tunes constantly buzzing through the airwaves to keep drivers and passengers entertained. Drivers now enjoy the widest range of podcasts material ever, from entertainment, politics, lifestyle issues, and of course, car topics! The Pocket Casts app offers diversity and segment-leading appeal by allowing for downloads, subscriptions, and easily picking back up where you left off.

The sync option allows you to listen to an episode on your phone, and then quickly resume the playback while using Android Auto. The very powerful filters that Pocket Casts incorporates allow you to locate the exact episodes you’re looking for, along with the ability to build a playback docket from your favorite shows. This app has also been praised for being able to sync podcasts and their playback location across all your devices.

SpotHero:

We all know what it feels like to be on a huge time crunch and suddenly wish that we had our very own parking assistant! SpotHero is an app that stands out above the rest because of its practicality and ease of use. Once you complete your spot reservation, you launch the spot hero app on Android Auto and then it integrates quickly into Google Maps for navigation instructions.

You are also even able to pay for a spot as well on the app, making dinner and a movie on the town that much simpler. You can look and compare prices at thousands of eligible facilities across North America, and it makes large events such as games and concerts so much easier. SpotHero also takes the headaches out of flying. You can search for the best parking deals and book ahead of time. You can hunt for long-term parking, valet service, and many other spots as cities are not getting any less congested.

Ready to plug in, connect, and hit the road?

In-car Android Auto apps are a bit like video games: you can sometimes begin by enjoying the basics. However, the deeper you dig for more features, you discover awesome apps that you may now feel as if you can’t live without! Are there any other Android Auto goodies out there that have made your commute more interesting, or helped you during hectic times? Let us know in the comments below, or check out another article about some cool gadgets that improve passenger safety.