Android Auto’s Secret Superpower Is a Customizable Shortcut Button

Even if connecting your Android phone to your car's dashboard via Android Auto is a daily ritual for you, you may not have explored much beyond the default settings for the interface. You probably just want to get where you're going, rather than dive through menus and options screens to tweak the Android Auto experience.

However, it's worth familiarizing yourself with a few key Android Auto tweaks that can make your time behind the wheel easier. One of these is the option to add Assistant shortcuts to the Android Auto app screen, so anything you can tell Google Assistant to do, you can put behind a button on your dashboard.

We're currently in the midst of Google moving all of its apps and devices over to Gemini from Google Assistant, but for now the Assistant shortcut option remains in Android Auto—and presumably when the Gemini switch is finally complete, the new voice-controlled AI chatbot will take over the same role on Android Auto.

The possibilities for what these shortcuts can do are many and varied. By pressing a button on your dashboard, you can get directions home from wherever you are, load up one of your Spotify playlists, open the garage door, turn the lights off at home, or have your incoming text messages read out to you. That’s just a few examples; If something works as a Google Assistant voice command, it will work as a shortcut button.

Create an Android Auto Shortcut

Exactly where the Android Auto launcher options are is going to depend on your make and model of Android phone, but they'll be somewhere in Settings. On Google Pixel phones, from Settings you tap Connected devices > Connection preferences > Android Auto.

Once you're into the Android Auto menus, choose Customize Launcher. This screen lets you pick which of your phone apps show up on the Android Auto dashboard—though of course not all of them are going to be compatible (it'll mostly be mapping and media apps listed here).

Tap Add a shortcut to the Launcher > An Assistant action, and you can create your custom shortcut. Just type out your command (the command you would issue using your voice), give it a name, and then tap Create shortcut.

If you're currently connected to Android Auto, you can also use the Test shortcut button to see if it works as intended. If you're not in your vehicle, you're still able to create shortcuts, you just have to hope you've worded them correctly.

Your newly created shortcut gets added to the list on the Customize Launcher screen, and you can use the handle just to the left of the shortcut entry to change its position in the app order. Android Auto lets you create multiple shortcuts, and you can group them all together for easy access.

To modify a shortcut, just tap on it. To delete it, tap the red cross to the right. Deleting shortcuts doesn't in any way disable the normal voice command operation that Android Auto offers, and you can still speak to Google Assistant as you usually would (even if you've made shortcuts for the same commands).

Try to think about commands you need while driving, especially things that are better as button pushes than spoken out loud, things like navigating to the closest gas station or finding out what the weather's going to do in the next 30 minutes. If you need multiple instructions in the same command, you can chain them all together.