Android Auto finally gets something new in the latest update – and it's rolling out now

Android Auto has been updated again, bringing with it a feature that's likely to change daily interactions with the media player on the popular in-car driving companion.

As part of Android Auto 16 – which is finally rolling out in some regions – the update brings with it a controversial change to the button order in the media player. This was first spotted in May 2025, where the play/pause button moved from the central position to the left.

That means that to skip forward or back, drivers will have to tap the relevant buttons to the right, rather than them flanking the play/pause controller as before. While this layout was first leaked in May, it was then confirmed at Google I/O that this was a planned change for media moving forward.

Now, according to 9to5Google, with the Android Auto 16.0 update appearing for some drivers, that change has been implemented.

For some drivers, this will definitely cause some confusion with erroneous button pressing until they adjust to the new layout. According to the source, the new layout is visible in Spotify and Pocket Casts.

However, apart from those changes, there doesn't seen to be anything else that's major in the new version of Android Auto, as the slow pace of change continues for Google's in-car driving app.

Will the new Android Auto changes affect my car?

While the on-screen alterations might present some issues for some drivers, that's not the only option there is for changing tracks or to pause music. Most cars with steering wheel buttons have these mapped to those controls in Android Auto, so for many, the visual change will go unnoticed.

Android Auto appears to be in something of a fractured state at the moment, with the biggest change – the implementation of Gemini – not fully available to all users.

Although the rollout was officially announced in November, we've still not got it on devices in the UK – and many users have been commenting that the older Google Assistant is becoming unusable while they wait for the upgrade.

At the same time, the new button layout appears to have arrived with the Material 3 Expressive change that was expected. As previously reported, the track timeline changes from a straight line to a wavy bar to match the most recent visuals on Android 16 phones.