When you're driving, your attention should be on the road, but sometimes you need to glance at your car's infotainment screen for a notification. Google 's operating system for car infotainment screens, Android Automotive OS , already offers plenty of ways to quickly get notified about notifications, and it's soon adding another one: app cards on the home screen that will even show your food orders.
See also: Android Auto will let you browse the web
In the new version of Android Automotive, the home screen includes a large, dedicated card for Google Maps and a smaller card for media controls, placed between the status bar and the navigation bar. Previous versions also included a card for the weather forecast for the vehicle's location. Until now, these home screen cards were provided exclusively by the operating system, without the ability for app developers.
Αυτό το μοντέλο διατηρεί την αρχική οθόνη καθαρή και ομοιόμορφη, επιτρέποντας στους οδηγούς να βλέπουν γρήγορα βασικές πληροφορίες χωρίς να ασχολούνται με την πλοήγηση στο περιβάλλον χρήστη. Το μειονέκτημα όμως, είναι ότι ο οδηγός πρέπει να ανοίξει ξεχωριστές εφαρμογές για να ενημερωθεί για πληροφορίες που δεν εμφανίζονται στην αρχική οθόνη, όπως για παράδειγμα η κατάσταση μιας παραγγελίας φαγητού.
See also: Google created a dashcam app for vehicles with Android Automotive
To address this problem, Google is introducing a new feature called AppCard. An AppCard “displays the most relevant data and functionality of an app to users in an accessible and always-available way.” It’s a “grouping of user interface (UI) elements” whose formatting is controlled by the car manufacturers — so apps only provide the content, not the design.
Applications can include elements such as an image with accompanying text, a button, or a progress bar, but developers must take into account that the constraints on the available space also limit the content that can appear on the card. Beyond that, there do not appear to be any other restrictions on what applications can include in AppCards.
Google imagines that developers will use this feature for functions such as “showing the status of a food order,” “showing photos to passengers,” or “monitoring and periodically updating the price of cryptocurrencies.” However, there is no explicit rule prohibiting the display of other types of information. Google may place restrictions on this feature in the future through Play Store, but it remains to be seen whether it will do so.
See also: Ford: Supplies models with Android digital dashboards
It will be interesting to see how developers adopt this feature, especially as Google brings more apps to cars with Android Automotive.
Source: androidauthority
