XDA Developers was the first to notice a new prompt in the latest Android 12 beta when using Android Auto, which appears to point towards a complete shutdown of Android Auto on smartphones. Google has been working on a new Assistant Driving Mode to replace Android Auto on Android phones for a few years now, but this appears to be the final step toward pushing users to that new service. Google first introduced Assistant Driving Mode in 2019, but it was delayed. Instead, Google launched Android Auto for Phone Screens. In early 2020, Google began rolling out Assistant Driving Mode, which currently is not fully available in all countries. Unfortunately, Google hasn’t provided a list of countries or languages that support the new auto-centric Mode. Now, though, Google plans to shut down the phone app for Android Auto and is letting users know via a notification. That notification, which appears when trying to launch Android Auto on some devices running Android 12, basically states that Android Auto only will be available for in-car screens and that Assistant Driving Mode will replace it on Android phones. Following initial reports, Google did later confirm the shutdown in a statement to 9To5Google. At the time of publishing, we were unable to get the notification to appear in our Android Auto application, so it looks like Google is doing a slow rollout to transition users over.
