Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
Longtime Android Auto users will surely know that bugs in this world come and go for no apparent reason, but one problem encountered in April doesn’t seem to be going away.
Users took to Google forums a few months ago to report that Android Auto no longer displays a notification when new messages arrive on their smartphones. While most people said the standard text messaging experience was affected, some users revealed that other notifications from third-party messengers were also broken.
Although Google Community Specialists have stepped in to ask for more information to help with a potential investigation, the search giant has yet to release a solution.
In the meantime, the problem has spread and 220 people have hit the “me too” button on the forums, confirming that they have the same error in their cars. The number of users affected by this problem is probably much higher, considering that not everyone uses the forums.
Luckily, users have investigated the issue and found two workarounds that restore message notifications in their cars.
The first solution is to go to the Messages settings and enable pop-up notifications. Someone on the forums confirmed the workaround, explaining that when you disable this feature (disable pop-ups for the Messages app), you no longer receive message notifications on Android Auto. It’s unclear how or why the option was disabled, but some suspect that a recent Android update quietly introduced the change.
The second is a downgrade to Android Auto 11.7. The latest stable build is Android Auto 12.6, so you can imagine that downgrading to such an old version means you’re missing out on all the latest improvements. Fortunately, Google hasn’t introduced many new features lately, so if you install Android Auto 11.7, you might just be missing out on the latest fixes and performance improvements.
One user claims that while Android Auto 11.7 does the trick and lets them run the app without the message notification bug, it keeps asking them to update. This is indeed a problem, but users can block the auto-update and continue running Android Auto 11.7 until Google forces them to install a newer version. Hopefully, the company will also release a workaround in the meantime.
Otherwise, installing the latest Android Auto updates, wiping cache and data, changing cables and everything else that might help with the most common bugs in this world won't make any difference. Message notifications are broken in the latest Android Auto versions, so sticking with one of the two workarounds described above is your only option.
Let me know in the comment box below if you have found a different way to solve this problem and don't forget to mention the version of Android Auto you are using.