Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Android Auto is testing a redesigned dashboard media card with a central album art and blurred background.
- The new layout may add additional controls such as like, shuffle and repeat depending on the music app.
- Whether these additional buttons are visible or not depends on the display of the head unit.
Google announced Extensive Android Auto makeover at I/O 2026and some of these changes are starting to reach drivers now. For example, today we saw this Google Maps’ new Immersive Navigation interface slowly rolling out, bringing 3D buildings and clearer road features to the dashboard. Now we’ve found another visual update that wasn’t clearly mentioned in Google’s I/O announcement materials: a redesigned media card for the Android Auto dashboard.
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We were able to enable the new layout in the latest version of Android Auto. The current dashboard card uses the album art as a full-sized background, with song details and playback controls layered over it. It now includes Google’s newer squiggly progress bar and updated buttons began to become more widespread earlier this year. You can see examples of existing and potential new cards in the two images below.
The redesigned card gives the album artwork a more conventional home in the center, its colors used to create a blurred background. The song title and artist also move and center below the artwork, making the entire card less busy than the current version.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
As you can see from the image above, the redesign can add more playback controls to the dashboard. Depending on the music app, these may include buttons like like, shuffle, and repeat. Whether you actually see them will also depend on the screen density of your head unit, with larger or higher DPI screens able to accommodate additional controls. In these layouts, the play/pause button moves to a more central position.
This change only affects the media card shown with navigation in the Android Auto dashboard. Opening the media app in full screen mode still brings up the existing player interface.
As with any feature discovered during an APK teardown, this redesign is likely still a work in progress, so Google may change the design further or decide not to release it. However, given the previous announcement and the direction Google suggests the app will take, this change could be seen sooner rather than later.
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