Android Auto will soon stop working on older Android smartphones
Based on code from the latest version of Android Auto, it seems that Google is preparing to stop supporting older versions of Android
Recently, the 9to5google.com team discovered several lines of code in the latest version of Android Auto that indicate that Google is planning to stop supporting the oldest versions of Android. According to this information, it seems that users of older smartphones will only be able to continue using Android Auto after updating their operating system to the latest version of Android. Google is planning to display a message to users of older versions of Android that will require an OS update to continue using Android Auto.
<string name="phone_os_deprecation_notification_title">Update Android</string>
<string name="phone_os_deprecation_notification_content">To keep using Android Auto, update your phone to the latest version of Android</string
It's not yet known whether Android Auto will stop working completely on older versions of Android, or whether it will continue to work without updates on those older versions. But this is yet another example of how some important Android apps are being deprecated on older versions of the operating system.
This situation is reminiscent of when Google Calendar stopped updating on devices running Android 7.1 or earlier. The company also recently announced that Chrome 119 will be the last version of its web browser to be supported by Android Nougat. To upgrade to Chrome 120, Google requires a device with at least Android 8.0 (Oreo).
Source: 9to5google.com