Overview
- Evidence in Android Auto 15.6 beta shows a new widget feature, discovered via APK strings and screenshots, while the current stable release remains at version 15.4.
- The capability, codenamed Earth, appears in a Widget Companion menu accessed from the phone app, allowing users to choose a widget and adjust its size via a scaling slider.
- Only one widget can be active at a time, and it replaces the dashboard’s existing media-control space in a layout that splits the screen roughly 35–40% for the widget and 60–65% for other content.
- Interactivity is constrained in early testing, with Spotify playback buttons working but other taps returning access errors, and Pixel Weather widgets functioning best with limited actions.
- Strings also point to Assistant shortcuts updated for Gemini compatibility and a stock media control that lets drivers swipe between multiple active music apps, with no official rollout timeline disclosed.