Android Auto vs a car dashboard app: which do you need?

These two get lumped together, but they are not the same kind of thing, and picking the wrong one wastes your money or your time. Android Auto is a projection system. A car dashboard app is a phone app. Here is when each one actually wins.

We make a dashboard app (Car Dashboard), so this has a stake, but the split below is honest, there are real cases where Android Auto is the better answer.

The core difference

• Android Auto takes your phone's apps and draws them on your car's built-in screen. The phone goes dark; the car's display does the work. It needs a compatible head unit.
• A car dashboard app runs on the phone, mounted on your dash. The phone is the screen. It needs nothing but a mount, and works in any car.

Same goal, keep your eyes up and hands off the phone, two completely different setups.

When Android Auto wins

• Your car has a compatible screen already.
• You want everything on the car's larger built-in display.
• You are happy with Android Auto's fixed layout and its curated app list.

If that is you, Android Auto is excellent and free. Use it.

When a dashboard app wins

• Your car has no compatible screen (older car, base trim, no infotainment). This is a huge share of cars on the road, see CarPlay vs Android Auto.
• You want a custom cockpit, a big speedometer, gauges, your own layout, that Android Auto's fixed interface will not give you.
• You want OBD-II engine data on the same screen as your speed and maps.
• You want it to work in any car you drive, a rental, a partner's car, an old runabout.

Car Dashboard is built for these cases: a landscape cockpit on a mounted phone with a glanceable speedometer, clock, weather, maps, music, radio and hands-free calling, dark for night, no head unit required. It is not Android Auto and does not project to a car screen, it makes the phone the display, which is exactly what you need when there is no car screen to project to.

Can you use both?

Yes, and plenty of people do. Android Auto on the drives where you have the compatible car, a dashboard app on the phone the rest of the time, or in a second, older car. They are not mutually exclusive.

How to choose

The short version: if your car can run Android Auto and you like it, keep it. If it cannot, or you want a cockpit Android Auto will not give you, a dashboard app on a mounted phone is the better tool, and works everywhere. See also do you need Android Auto for a car dashboard.