{"id":601474,"date":"2026-04-13T15:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/601474\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T15:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:54:12","slug":"early-look-at-the-new-android-autos-hvac-and-climate-control-ui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/601474\/","title":{"rendered":"Early look at the new Android Auto&#8217;s HVAC and climate control UI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img class=\"e_Wg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  title=\"android auto launcher home screen 1\"  alt=\"android auto launcher home screen 1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/android-auto-launcher-home-screen-1.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Andy Walker \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>TL;DR<\/p>\n<p>The latest Android Auto v16.7 includes code for a new climate control interface, indicating the feature is still in development and not abandoned.<br \/>\nControls have moved from the bottom rail to the side edges, offering larger buttons that are easier to use on wide car screens.<br \/>\nThe current layout favors left-hand-drive vehicles. It remains to be seen if Google will add a toggle for right-hand-drive markets.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, we spotted Google finally working to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-auto-hvac-ac-controls-3535547\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bring HVAC controls to Android Auto<\/a>. This would allow users to control several in-car settings without needing to switch out of Android Auto into their car\u2019s head unit OS. We even managed to get an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-auto-climate-controls-demo-3549019\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">early look at the HVAC controls within Android Auto<\/a> back then. However, Google has remained silent about this feature, and we couldn\u2019t find any further progress in the code. With the latest Android Auto, we\u2019re finally seeing some progress that reassures us that the feature isn\u2019t shelved yet.<\/p>\n<p>In our previous spotting (see the image below), the HVAC controls were located on the bottom rail, alongside your pinned app icons.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_Wg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"Android Auto Climate Control settings (4)\"  alt=\"Android Auto Climate Control settings (4)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Android-Auto-Climate-Control-settings-4-scaled-e1745931243254.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>AssembleDebug \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>The latest\u00a0Android Auto v16.7.161544 release includes code for a newer UI for the upcoming HVAC controls within Android Auto. We managed to activate it to give you an early look:<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_Wg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"Android Auto Upcoming in car HVAC and Climate Controls (1)\"  alt=\"Android Auto Upcoming in car HVAC and Climate Controls (1)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Android-Auto-Upcoming-in-car-HVAC-and-Climate-Controls-1.jpg\"\/><img class=\"e_Wg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"Android Auto Upcoming in car HVAC and Climate Controls (2)\"  alt=\"Android Auto Upcoming in car HVAC and Climate Controls (2)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Android-Auto-Upcoming-in-car-HVAC-and-Climate-Controls-2.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The new UI, called \u201chero\u201d in the app code, moves the climate controls to the left and right edges of the display. Most car head units are wider rather than taller, so users will find that the climate control buttons take up less usable screen real estate. The buttons are bigger and more spread out, making them easier to tap without getting distracted.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/andauth.co\/AAGooglePreferredSource\" class=\"e_dm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\"><img class=\"e_Wg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\"  alt=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768233971_656_google_preferred_source_badge_light@2x.png\"\/><img class=\"e_Wg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\"  alt=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768233972_401_google_preferred_source_badge_dark@2x.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, placing the bulk of the climate controls on the left side could make it difficult to use in regions with right-hand-drive vehicles (like Australia, India, the UK, and others). Hopefully, Google builds and includes a setting to toggle which side of the display the primary controls are placed whenever it decides to roll out the feature.<\/p>\n<p>We haven\u2019t heard from Google about climate control support within Android Auto. This feature is a long time coming, so we hope Google announces it soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u26a0\ufe0f An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Walker \/ Android Authority TL;DR The latest Android Auto v16.7 includes code for a new climate control&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[29769,5497,49,48,192,190,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-601474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-android-auto","9":"tag-authority-insights","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-google","13":"tag-mobile","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}