Google looks to be preparing Work Profile support for Android Auto, with a Work Mode switch among the car screen’s quick settings. The tile sits inside the code of Android Auto 18 but doesn’t do anything yet, and Google hasn’t announced it.
It matters if your employer manages a Work Profile on your phone. Those profiles wall office apps off from personal ones, which leaves holes in what the car screen can do today, and a Work Mode control would be the first sign that Google plans to fill them.
Android Authority dug the tile out of version 18.0.664204 of the app, in a teardown. The team had to alter the app themselves to bring it up, and a briefcase icon then appeared over the app drawer. Pressing the tile changed nothing. Android Headlines adds that a floating Work icon may sit at the edge of the screen when the mode is on, and that work apps would run apart from personal ones.
Where work apps fall short in the car
Engadget’s explainer on the topic gives two examples. Microsoft Teams can handle calls and meetings on the car screen, but only when it sits outside a managed profile. Google Meet is partly covered: a work call in progress can show on the dashboard, while that profile’s upcoming meetings and call log stay out of view.
Pausing work on the phone for now
On the phone itself, Google’s Android Enterprise help page describes two ways to pause a Work Profile: the Pause work apps switch at the bottom of the Work tab, or the work tile in Quick Settings. Paused work apps stop running and stop sending notifications, while personal apps carry on. The same page covers scheduling, which switches the profile on and off at hours and days you choose.
The teardown also turned up icons for do not disturb, battery saver, light and dark mode and settings. They appear to be designed for Samsung phones and may belong to further quick-settings tiles, but that is a guess.
Android Auto 18 is part of a wider redesign, with 3D elements and customisable widgets that Google previewed around I/O 2026. Whether Work Mode ships with it is unknown, and nothing so far shows that the tile would pause work notifications or open work apps. Even then, employers decide which apps live in the profile, and Android Auto already limits what apps can do while a car is moving.
