No cool walks yet
Google has been redesigning Android Auto for years. The new look was first leaked in September 2021 before the company made it official at his I/O 2022. Coolwalk UI entered beta testing in November 2022, and Big G announced its final stable release in January this year. But as it turns out, Google’s rollout has been slow, with only the lucky users getting access to the new design a few weeks after the announcement. But unfortunately no new Coolkwalk redesign has been done.
9to5Google reports that many users have received the Android Auto 8.7 update via the Play Store in the last few days. The new release doesn’t seem to include any significant new features or bug fixes for users. More importantly, even if the Android Auto 8.7 update appears on your phone, it won’t automatically enable the Coolwalk design.
The Coolwalk UI was shown to Acura RDX owners over the Lunar New Year weekend despite the phone running Android Auto 8.6. This indicates that the new UI is not linked to his Android Auto version on the phone and that the update component is being pushed by Google through server-side updates. Some users in the Reddit thread even reported being able to access his Coolwalk interface on Android Auto 8.5x. Still, you can manually sideload Android Auto 8.7 from his APKMirror on your phone and see if the new UI activates.
Considering Coolwalk is Android Auto’s major UI revamp, it’s understandable why Google is slow to roll it out. The company probably wants to make sure the new interface works well across different head units and doesn’t contain any critical bugs that could adversely affect the user experience. However, its slow rollout has frustrated users who have waited months to try out the redesign.
