Although Android Auto is a magnificent ally for our
Thus, you can give a second life to an old Android to turn it into a screen with Android Auto or directly use your current smartphone with a launcher. There are alternatives as good as Car Launcher or this one that we present to you today. And one last option: use Google Driving Mode, although we already told you that it is not what it was and that the new one is quite decaffeinated. But if you want to use a mobile phone and are looking for a complete experiencethis alternative launcher to Android Auto is truly wonderful.
A free alternative to Android Auto to improve the mobile phone use experience in the car
The application in question is CarWebGuru and I can tell you that not only is it light years away from Google’s driving mode, but it does of customization, compatible applications and flexibility its best assets even in the free version (there is a paid version to get rid of ads and have more themes and widgets). The first thing of all is to download it from the Google Play Store.
As soon as you install it on the phone, you have to provide it with certain logical permissions to be able to use it fully. An interesting point is that in addition to listing them, it explains why you need them: location to calculate speed or distance, notifications to receive notices from browsers, system settings to modify the screen brightness, among others. Once configured or not (you can always accept the minimum and accept them as appropriate), we slide to the lower area to start the application (the green button).
An extra recommendation– Although WebCarGuru can be used vertically, it is worth unlocking the spin because you get more out of this launcher horizontally.
From here, we find a design perhaps somewhat out of fashion in these times of minimalism, but at least it is intuitive and functional. It also allows you to change it from top to bottom. The default interface has a kind of control circle with buttons for playback and basic general information. You can press on that central area to see the current speed, date and time, playback or even a compass.
Nevertheless, What interests us are the buttons arranged on the side (widgets)since we can configure them both in the order we want and with the application we want (for which we will only have to give a long touch), something that significantly improves the experience compared to the driving mode, but also opens the application options even surpassing the compatibility that Android Auto has.
So, for example, in ‘Navigation’ we can configure it to open AmiGo, ‘Music’ to do the same with Amazon Music Unlimited, ‘Phone’ to link it to Contacts, but also eliminate others that may have less. sense of those that come by default like ‘Files Manager’ or ‘Internet’ and instead put a radar application like Coyote or even Netflix. Yeah, CarWebGuru allows you to open any application…which doesn’t mean it’s a good idea if you’re driving, so at your own risk.
There are other buttons arranged outside that kind of dashboard panel that lead to the help section, the phone’s WiFi settings or the file manager. As before, with a long press we can change to place another action. And we’re not done: by sliding up on the main screen there are more options, such as changing the background or even that interface skin and general settings. In short: there is customization to bore. The statistics and widget sections deserve special mention.
How does it work? In a fluid way and fulfilling its mission of simplifying. In the end what it does is reduce the steps and the Android interface of our phone so that we can open the applications that we are going to use while driving more agilely and quickly. Of course, it does not have that practical Android Auto Coolwalk multi-window mode nor can we control it with our voice (something essential if we want to avoid fines), but it will always be better than using the mobile phone as is.
Cover | Eva RodrÃguez de Luis
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