Google already has a car-navigation UI in the form of Android Auto Tona, as well as a future replacement in the form of auxiliary driving mode, but it seems to be implementing a very similar concept in Google Maps. We’ve seen music playback controls appear before in map navigation, but never Android Auto toe-style buttons and the home screen.
The interface in question looks a lot from Android’s Tona point of view, but it’s different from being completely based on the Maps app. At the bottom there are two buttons in navigation mode – one for voice and the other for “home screen” – a third map icon appears if not as a quick way to get back to the actual navigation screen. On top of that is your music playback, which lets you play games with large text and buttons to help keep your eye on the road. All of the above is just the standard map navigation UI we all know.
Tap the Home screen button and you’re taken to an intuitive screen where you can access all your needs – calls, messages, music players and podcast apps. The “All calls” screen contains your top three contacts and the three most recent calls, including the “Call someone else” button. Brings you to your real dialer. YouTube has a dedicated interface for music that Google also considers essential.
The existence of this new interface is a little surprising; It seems to work virtually the same as the Android phone to phone UI, minus the ability to use Ways as a navigator. We already knew that the Android Auto Tona phone UI would be replaced by Assistant Driving Mode, but despite the similar appearance, this is not quite it either. Assistant Driving Mode was announced a year ago, with no ETA provided, and we haven’t heard anything about it since.
Map navigation mode doesn’t seem to be fully deployed yet, but it has reached a few readers and at least one AP staff member. Unfortunately, we don’t have an APK that we can share, as it looks like Google is running a server-side switch. Let us know below if this has been shown to you while navigating somewhere.
- Thanks:
- Josh L ton ton,
- Kevin
