If your phone still runs Android 10 or older, Android Auto is the next thing it may stop doing. Google’s requirements page now lists Android 11 as the minimum version for projecting your phone to a car screen.
The page asks for an Android phone running Android 11.0 or higher for a USB connection, and says wireless projection works with any phone on Android 11.0. Phones on Android 9 and Android 10 fall below that line. Google has not said, on that page, what happens to them: they may simply stop getting updates to the app or stop connecting.
This follows a run of Android Auto changes in the past week, including a fix for connection drops on One UI 9. Those affected the newest phones, while this one hits the oldest.
To see where you stand, open Settings, then About phone, and read the Android version. Where it says 10 or lower, check the system update screen for a newer release. Many budget phones sold in the last few years never got past Android 10, so the only way to keep Android Auto may be a newer phone. Your car’s built-in screen is not the limit, since the requirement is about the phone.
Android 11 reached phones in 2020, so the new floor is still a six-year-old release. Phones that old are not common among recent buyers, but they are still in daily use in many markets. Those owners are the ones who would notice first when the app stops working.
Google’s page lists no date for when the change takes effect, so phones that work today may carry on until the next Android Auto update.
