An Android Auto UI tweak centers the Google Maps arrow, frustrating users

bradypsnyder@gmail.com (Brady Snyder)
2025-01-27 18:29:00
www.androidcentral.com

What you need to know

Google Maps on Android Auto now centers the navigation arrow if you haven’t set a destination yet.
However, this tweak means that much of the map view around your car will be blocked by the destination box on smaller screens.
Luckily, the update still shifts the navigation arrow and driving route when a destination is set.

Android Auto runs on car screens of many sizes, and although it tries to take a one-size-fits-all approach, that doesn’t always work. As newer cars start shipping with much larger screens with different aspect ratios, Android Auto is occasionally updated to adapt. However, that isn’t always a good thing. Now, a slight tweak to the Google Maps view in Android Auto is causing some users to become frustrated, as documented in Reddit posts.

Previously, when running Google Maps on Android Auto without a destination set, the street a user is currently driving on — along with their navigation arrow — would appear off-centered. It was positioned toward the right, to make room for the destination box. The destination box is fairly large, and features the search bar plus a few suggested location. Paired with the settings and buttons to the left of it, the destination box eats into the viewable area of your map.

That’s where the off-centered street view came in handy. It ensured that the street you’re driving on could be viewed on the map even on small, squarish Android Auto screens. A new OTA update appears to have shifted the navigation arrow, denoting a user’s current position on the map, to the center. This makes it tricky to see what’s in front of you on the street being traveled.

Google Maps is now centered on the screen from r/AndroidAuto

The good news is that the Android Auto update doesn’t seem to affect the view when a destination is set. While navigation is active, the navigation arrow and driving route are both shifted right so they are clearly visible. This makes it all the more puzzling why Google would change the user-interface for setting a destination, as Reddit users describe in the comments to the original post.

The shift only affects cars with smaller and square displays, as widescreen or larger screens have the room to keep the map view visible even while centered. Hiding or minimizing the search bar and suggestions list should help matters, but that’s now another thing Google Maps users on Android Auto have to worry about.

It’s possible that Google changes or reverts this update in a future one, as it has tweaked the position of the navigation arrow and destination box multiple times in the past. For now, it seems users will have to get used to the central placement of the navigation arrow.

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