Google’s Android Auto Will Soon Require Android 11 or Newer

Android Auto will soon stop working on Android phones running Android 10 or older. A recently updated support page (via 9to5Google) now mentions that the technology requires Android 11 or newer for both the wired and wireless experiences, and multiple Reddit users have been reporting seeing in-car notifications about their Android phones being no longer supported.

Google last changed the minimum hardware requirements for Android Auto a year ago, when Android 9 became mandatory for installing Android Auto updates. By changing that to Android 11, which was released back in 2020, Google is likely going to leave a lot of Android phones by the wayside.

It’s one thing for Android Auto to no longer receive updates on phones running Android 10 or older, but it’s another thing to disable the feature entirely on these devices. In comparison, Apple’s CarPlay system, which made its debut on iOS 7.1, still works on devices as old as the iPhone 5 from 2012.

It’s not uncommon for apps and services to drop support for older versions of iOS and Android, but that probably shouldn’t happen for something like Android Auto that’s directly integrated into Android phones. Again, it’s quite surprising to see Apple doing much better on that front.